The American Society of Plastic Surgeons recommended on Tuesday that its members refrain from performing gender transition procedures on patients until they reach age 19. This represents a shift that comes as the whole gender-affirming movement is under social, legislative, and legal assault. The recommendation puts the plastic surgeons' group at odds with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Endocrine Society, and the American Medical Association, all of which have supported access to gender-affirming care for minors.
Let's take a quick look to see how we got here. Personally, I date the beginning of the end of the trans craze to a 2022 undercover video of a doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Shayne Taylor, saying trans surgeries are "huge money makers" and that because they require many follow-up visits, it is a sustainable, recurring revenue source for the hospital; see Tennessee Republicans Go On the Offensive Against Hospital Doing Children's Transgender Surgeries – RedState and Trans Clinic at Vanderbilt Exposed; Lefties Respond by Calling the FBI on the Person Who Exposed It – RedState.
Even though Arkansas had passed the first-in-the-nation ban on the sexual mutilation of youngsters and teens in 2021, over the veto of Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson, Dr. Taylor laid bare the sheer self-interest of the medical profession. By mid-2024, 25 states had laws banning or restricting surgery and puberty blockers for so-called "gender-affirming" therapy.
As this was going on in the legislative realm, another front had opened, this one involving transgender athletes, specifically, men pretending to be women. It started out in Olympic sports but quickly moved into high school sports; see You Will Be Made To Lose: Boy Wins Honors In Girls All State Track and Field – RedState.
The double whammy of money driving life-altering surgery on minors and of the image of men competing in women's sports called out by young women like Riley Gaines was a body blow to the trans agenda. The one-way argument about "fairness" was suddenly made understandable to a majority of Americans.
Along the way, the legal needle has moved steadily in favor of bans on "gender-affirming" surgery and drug regimens. In January, the transgender lobby had a disastrous argument before the Supreme Court on the issue of men competing in women's sports; see New: Supreme Court Appears Poised to Safeguard Girls' Athletics – RedState and ACLU Lawyer's Response Shows How Badly the 'Transgender' Lobby Was Spanked During Oral Arguments – RedState.
The decision by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons appears to me to be driven by the hard, cold fact that participating in this sort of sexual mutilation under the guise of medicine is going to cost practitioners far more than the constant cash flow touted by the doctor at Vanderbilt.
On January 30, a 22-year-old "detransitioner" named Fox Varian won a $2 million judgment against a psychologist and plastic surgeon who had provided the surgery and its supporting psychobabble to "transition" Ms. Varian when she was 16 years old; see Game-Changer: Detransitioner Wins Huge Judgment in First 'Gender Affirmation' Surgery Malpractice Case – RedState. The case was brought in Westchester County, New York, that would be in a state where transgender surgery is legal, and a jury could be expected to be sympathetic to the "gender-affirming" agenda.
An insurance company will undoubtedly pay the $2 million settlement. That company will probably decide that the legal risk associated with "gender affirming" surgery either requires higher premiums or that the company refuses to cover that surgery. The fact that the psychologist who led Ms. Varian down the path to self-mutilation was also called to account means that this lawsuit will reverberate through the entire trans-medical complex. You have to know that there are probably hundreds of young people out there who were sold a bill of goods by counselors and surgeons who are now regretting their decision to forgo a family and face decades of constant repair from the "gender-affirming" care they received, who are lawyering up.
In the words of Winston Churchill after the Battle of El Alamein, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." I think we've reached the same point in one of the existential struggles underway for the salvation of Western Civilization. This lawsuit, in conjunction with the legal environment and a realization that men in women's spaces and sports is not a good thing, might mark the point where we go on the offensive and eradicate this dangerous nonsense.
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