The hard left isn’t just pushing transgenderism in schools. A recent report revealed that a prominent children’s hospital in Portland has been advising children on techniques they can use to resemble the gender opposite from their birth.
The Federalist reported:
Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland has been teaching “safe tucking” and “chest binding” to minors confused about their sex, even referring them to a local sex shop as a resource. Chest binding means putting pressure on breasts to hide them, and tucking means similarly treating male genitals.
Doernbecher, a division of Oregon Health and Science University, operates a “gender clinic” for “transgender and gender-nonconforming children and teens.” The “clinic” provides puberty suppression, hormones, and genital mutilation (under the name “gender-affirming surgery”) to children confused about their sex.
The hospital created handouts to give to boys on “Safe Tucking,” which teaches them how to hide their sexual organs. It reads, “[t]ucking can reduce any concerns you have about your body, how your clothes fit and how safe you feel in public.”
The medical center also instructs kids on other methods they can use to conceal their genitalia. “There are two main ways to tuck: with tape and without. You might find that simply wearing tight underwear smooths things out enough,” the handout reads. It even teaches boys about “putting your testicles inside your body” and even provides a diagram to give the child a visual.
Doernbecher also provides another handout to help girls who seek to become boys hide parts of their anatomy. One handout instructs them on “chest binding,” which is a way for girls to hide their breasts. “Chest binding can help people of any gender feel more comfortable with the way their chest looks and feels,” the handout explains.
But this isn’t the end of it.
The hospital also encourages kids to use sex shops as resources. It tells boys how they can find and purchase “tucking clothing.” It even refers them to a local sex shop called “SheBop,” which is described as a “sex-positive” store. The business sells sex toys and gender-affirming clothing and videos. The shop’s website said that it pushes for “equity in the adult industry.”
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to sex education or pleasure,” the website explains. “We are working to decenter whiteness — in our hiring practices, education program, product selection, and beyond. We recognize there is more to equity than dildo skin tones.”
The shop offers appointments before or after hours for minor children. The Federalist noted that “[t]he language has since been changed to note the need for a parent or guardian and a consent form.”
Medical professionals at the hospital typically start treatment to suppress a child’s biological sex at puberty, but its website says doctors “are happy to meet with you and your child before that, though.”
The debate over children transitioning to the opposite sex has been raging for years with people disagreeing over the appropriate age this decision could be made. The Federalist noted:
The United Kingdom’s High Court affirmed the obvious in December 2020: Children do not have the capacity to appropriately weigh gender transition treatment. “There is no age appropriate way to explain to many of these children what losing their fertility or full sexual function may mean to them in later years,” the High Court said, in a decision that was later appealed.
However, those on the progressive side have advocated for children socially transitioning at ages as young as three years old. Author Jon Brooks explained that therapists at the University of California San Francisco told him they have “socially transitioned kids as young as three.”
Currently, the legal age for undergoing a medical transition is 18 years old. However, there appears to be an effort to encourage more children to socially become the opposite sex even before they hit puberty. Indeed, there has been a drastic rise in the number of children identifying as the opposite gender. A study conducted in 2020 found a correlation between media reports on the matter and the increase in children coming out as transgender:
In this study, we observed evidence of an association between TGD-related media stories and referrals to 2 independent pediatric gender services on opposite sides of the world. Although our data do not provide evidence of causation, the results are nonetheless consistent with our own clinical experiences in which TGD patients commonly identify the media as a precipitant for them to seek clinical assistance.
Of course, the increased media reports on the subject could be caused by more kids identifying as trans. But the fact remains that an increase has occurred, especially among biological females. In her book “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” author Abigail Shrier writes:
In the last decade that has changed, and dramatically. The Western world has seen a sudden surge of adolescents claiming to have gender dysphoria and self-identifying as “transgender.” For the first time in medical history, natal girls are not only present among those so identifying—they constitute the majority.
The left would argue that over the past decade more girls suffering from gender dysphoria have been willing to go public with their condition. But it seems all too likely that much of this is due to conditioning, especially in schools. Even more disturbing is the notion that this is happening unbeknownst to their parents.
The fact that a children’s hospital is actively encouraging children to embrace their gender dysphoria should give anyone pause, especially considering the reality that at least 70 percent of children who experience this condition end up growing out of it. The success of this effort is dependent on the fact that most people are not aware of what is happening. There will need to be more sunlight shed on this before any meaningful action can be taken against it.
