It's hard for a sane person to see any benefit from unnecessary medical and surgical intervention. It's hard for any sane person to see any benefit in altering a healthy body. But the current transgender ideology maintains views that not only is this necessary, but that it must be funded by the taxpayers if required.
This notion is pure corral litter. But the insistence continues, regardless of the increasing amounts of actual evidence against it. Now, we have one more brick in the wall. At the behest of President Donald Trump, the Department of Health and Human Services has conducted a comprehensive review of the risks and benefits of transgender treatments and surgeries.
It's not looking good for the advocates of transgender treatments.
Transgender procedures—including puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and sex-change surgeries—are all "associated with significant risks," with most causing "irreversible physical or physiological effects," according to the 409-page report. The HHS researchers added that there is "very weak evidence" that the procedures offer any benefit for children suffering from gender dysphoria, citing "systematic reviews of evidence around the world."
This is no surprise to anyone who has been paying any attention to this issue. There isn't a lot of good information on how many people who undergo these treatments regret it later and decide to try to go back, but hormone and surgical treatments can never be completely undone, especially when the treatments are (horribly) applied to pre-puberty children.
This study includes those unfortunate children, as specifically directed by the president.
The review comes in response to President Donald Trump's January 28 executive order titled "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation." The order prohibits "the chemical castration and medical mutilation of innocent children in the United States of America," Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. "Our Nation will no longer fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support so-called 'gender affirming care,' which has already ruined far too many precious lives."
"This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation's history, and it must end," Trump's order states.
Here's the thing: The whole "gender-affirming surgery" thing isn't a product of the 21st century. The first sex change clinic, as it was called at the time, was opened in 1969 in - of all places - Trinidad, Colorado. Dr. Stanley Biber and Dr. Marci Bowers, working in the Mt. San Rafael Hospital, performed over 6,000 of these surgeries from 1969 to 2010.
But in those days, the people seeking these treatments and surgeries were few and far between. 6,000 patients over 41 years make for roughly 146 patients per year; a substantial number, but fewer than are claiming "transgender" treatments today.
The president's order, though, specifies children. That's different. It's not clear whether the Trinidad clinic performed any treatments on children or not; the information doesn't seem to be readily available, and there may be a good reason for that. When we're talking children, we're talking a whole different proposition. Children cannot give informed consent. And, while I'm the biggest advocate for parental rights you're likely to find, there's a point where a line must be drawn, and there are too many parents of "transgender kids" who are raving examples of Munchausen-by-proxy; either that or they are just treating their "trans" kids as little walking status symbols. These parents would do better to seek psychiatric help for their kids (and themselves) - in fact, a few good head-candlers could build great careers around this issue.
The other problem is that there's just too much propagandizing from the pro-trans activists, often couched in pseudo-scientific language.
See Also: Bad Science: Brain Studies Actually Can't Identify Whether Someone Is 'Transgender'
New York AG Letitia James to Hospitals: Defy Trump, Continue Sex-Change Operations on Minors
It is as I've always maintained about this issue: Adults can do as they please, assuming that they are able to find a plastic surgeon who is willing to toss aside his or her Hippocratic Oath and the principle of primum non nocere. There are, we might note, surgeons like that around, and have been since at least 1969.
But children? No. Children cannot give fully informed consent, which is why we treat them as, you know, children. And, frankly, any parents who are willing to subject their children to debilitating hormone treatments and irreversible surgical procedures should have their motivations closely examined - and, probably, their heads.
You can view the entire HHS report here.
