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EXCLUSIVE: Here’s How A Small Band Of Pediatricians Pushed Medical Org Into Nixing Age Minimums For Sex Changes

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A handful of pediatricians who perform sex-change procedures on children led a successful pressure campaign to push a major transgender medical organization to remove age minimums for life-altering sex-change surgeries from its clinical guidance, according to emails exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Emails reveal the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) asked just four doctors — all of whom are considered leaders in the field of pediatric sex changes and have performed various transgender procedures — to review and provide feedback on an embargoed copy of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health’s (WPATH) clinical guidance, called the Standards of Care version 8 (SOC-8), weeks before its expected publication.

Based on the four doctors’ review, the AAP strong-armed WPATH into removing sex-change surgery age minimums from the SOC-8.

When the AAP asked the four pediatricians —Jason Rafferty, Ilana Sherer, Juanita Hodax, and Brittany Allen — to review the SOC-8 on the organization’s behalf in 2022, Rafferty, Sherer, and Allen were on the leadership team of the AAP’s Section on LGBT Health and Wellness, a group within the AAP that provides the organization with expertise and education on LGBT issues, according to an archive of its website.

The Biden-Harris administration also pressured WPATH to remove sex-change surgery age limits from their clinical guidance, according to records made public by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall while defending Alabama’s law restricting pediatric sex-change procedures.

In an amicus brief submitted in the upcoming Supreme Court case United States v. Skrmetti, Marshall explains that Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine — who is openly transgender — had unsuccessfully pressured WPATH to remove the surgical age minimums, but the pressure from the AAP “tipped the scales,” causing WPATH to remove the child sex-change surgery age minimums.

“Thanks to the Biden Administration and AAP, SOC-8 does not contain age minimums for any transitioning hormonal or surgical intervention except for one: phalloplasty, the surgical creation of a neopenis,” reads Marshall’s brief. “WPATH considers all other surgeries and interventions ‘medically necessary gender-affirming medical treatment[s] in adolescents.’”

Tipping The Scales

In August 2022, after securing an embargoed copy of WPATH’s clinical guidance, AAP state government affairs analyst Jeff Hudson asked the pediatricians to review how the guidance aligned with current AAP policy. Rafferty was the lead author of the AAP’s controversial child sex-change policy, first published in 2018, that supported the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex-change surgeries for minors. Reaffirmed in 2023, the AAP’s transgender policy notably excluded age minimums for drug or surgical interventions.

Hudson stressed the importance of reviewing the SOC-8 before it’s publication, noting it would have “implications” for their “existing legal arguments” as they fought state bans on child sex-change interventions in court.

“I explained our position and reasoning behind securing access to SOC-8 before its publication and WPATH agreed that the AAP and AAP chapters are leading the fight to protect access to this care at the state level and needs to be as prepared as possible,” wrote Hudson.

“There are implications for our existing legal arguments that I’ll work through with our counsel once you’ve reviewed and provided feedback.” 

Hudson requested the feedback quickly so that the AAP would have time to “formulate an advocacy strategy and media strategy” before the SOC-8’s anticipated release in September. Emails show a small group from the AAP, which included Hudson, the gender pediatricians and CEO Mark Del Monte, was given access to the embargoed guidance.   

The DCNF obtained a series of heavily redacted emails that appear to be discussions in which the gender pediatricians reviewed and commented on the embargoed draft of the SOC-8. In one heavily redacted email, Rafferty alluded to differences between the AAP’s policy and the WPATH clinical guidance, writing: “I personally continue to support the AAP’s current position over WPATH in my practice as articulated in the statement.” 

Hudson met with WPATH leadership on Sept. 5, 2022, and the following day reached out to Sherer, Rafferty, Hodax, and Allen, sending an attachment with their final “collated” comments on the SOC-8, promising to touch base with them all about “the plan moving forward.”

On Sept. 8, 2022, then-AAP president Moira Szilagyi sent a letter to WPATH letting them know the final version of the SOC-8 “raised concerns” from their clinical experts, who emails revealed to be Rafferty, Sherer, Hodax, and Allen. The AAP specifically took issue with WPATH’s inclusion of age minimums for pediatric sex-change surgery and their validation of “anti-transgender arguments.”

“AAP experts agree SOC8 lacks the evidence to justify the recommended surgery ages,” Szilagyi wrote, ending with a request that AAP subject-matter experts meet with WPATH for further discussion.

Neither Sherer, Hodax, nor Allen responded to the DCNF’s multiple requests for comment.

‘Very Junior People’

Documents released by AG Marshall detail how the AAP’s refusal to endorse the SOC-8 sent WPATH into chaos.

In response to the AAP’s letter, Scott Leibowitz, a co-lead of the SOC-8 chapter on adolescents, urgently created a task force to review the AAP’s feedback and “figure out next steps,” according to an email sent Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)- a MAJOR organization in the United States that is typically very pro-transhealth/gender affirming care- voiced its opposition to the SOC8, specifically due to aspects of the Adolescent chapter. Not only did they say they would not endorse the SOC, they indicated that they would actively publicly oppose it,” wrote Leibowitz.

“Clearly, if AAP were to publicly oppose the SOC-8, it would be a major challenge for WPATH, SOC-8, and trans youth access to care in the U.S.,” Leibowitz wrote.

That same day, Jon Arcelus, one of three co-chair’s responsible for leading WPATH’s SOC-8 development team, wrote to colleagues that he did not agree with bending the knee to the AAP’s request to remove sex-change surgery age minimums. In an email, he referred to the AAP’s policy as a “one sided narrative” and said making the changes they demanded “will make a joke of our methodology” and look “weak.”

“We can’t not [sic] write a document that looks like theirs, as it has a one sided narrative, extremely biased. I will be surprised in their guidelines are used at all,” wrote Arcelus.

“I think it will not be in the benefit of our community to remove ages as an suggestion and to make any of the changes that they are recommending. This will make a joke of our methodology and will see us as weak,” he wrote.

Then-president of WPATH Walter Bouman responded to Arcelus, writing: “I have also read all the comments from the AAP and struggle to find any sound evidence-based argument(s) underpinning these. I am seriously surprised that a ‘reputable’ association as the AAP is so thin on scientific evidence.”

Arcelus wrote he was “shocked” that the comments about the SOC-8 had come from “very junior people at the AAP.”

“I was shocked to see the feedback from very junior people from AAP, my suggestion was not to make any changes,” wrote Arcelus.

Leibowitz declined to comment through a Nationwide Children’s Hospital spokesperson. Neither WPATH, Arcelus, nor Bouman responded to the DCNF’s multiple requests for comment.

‘Reached A Deal’

In the early hours of Sept. 10, 2022, Arcelus sent WPATH colleagues his comments on the AAP’s requests to change the SOC-8.

“I am including the pdf with the comments from AAP. I have gone one by one through them and add my comments […] as to why we are not going to make changes or if we are say that we are removing it,” wrote Arcelus.

“Time is a problem as we want the SOC-8 to be out for Montreal, so we need to agree tomorrow whether 1) we ignore all their comments 2) we remove the sections that I suggest or more if you feel,” Arcelus wrote.

WPATH was under pressure to resolve the dispute with the AAP quickly, as it wanted to release the SOC-8 before an upcoming scientific symposium that began Sept. 15, 2022, in Montreal, Canada.

Through a public records request, the DCNF obtained 30 hours of recordings from the private WPATH symposium, where several speakers noted the SOC-8 was published the night before the symposium began.

Around midday on Sept. 10, 2022, Arcelus sent Hudson an email titled “Last version with changes.” The email included an attachment titled “SOC8 Final edit as agreed with adolescent chapter,” informing Hudson that WPATH had removed the age minimums from the SOC-8 as “agreed” upon and asking for the AAP’s endorsement.

“Thank you very much for today’s meeting and the support through this process. We have just finished our meeting and we have agreed to remove the ages and to add the sentence we agreed,” wrote Arcelus. “I hope that by doing this AAP will be able to endorse the SOC8 or at least to support it.”

Hudson forwarded the email to Rafferty, Sherer, Allen, Hodax and Mark Del Monte, asking: “Do you approve of these changes?”

“I think these changes are sufficient so that we would not need to oppose SOC8,” Rafferty responded, adding he didn’t see anything that “explicitly or directly contradicts or opposes our policies.”

“For us all, I think it is important to recognize that the [policy statement] is still our official policy even after SOC8 is released. These changes allow SOC8, especially the recommendations themselves, to at least be aligned with the [policy statement] without anything that explicitly or directly contradicts or opposes our policies,” wrote Rafferty.

Later that afternoon, Eli Coleman reported to his colleagues that the AAP was “satisfied with the proposed changes” and that the group was ready to provide a statement in support of WPATH. 

One person on the WPATH email chain, whose name was redacted, wrote: “May I thank each and all of you for the tremendous effort you made to reach a deal with the AAP and to allow the SOC 8 to be published.”

‘So Much More’

Rafferty played a critical role in the development of the AAP’s child sex-change policy, which has no age minimums for sex-change surgery and refers to puberty blockers as “reversible treatments.”

The DCNF obtained an email written by Rafferty in June 2022 responding to a series of questions from the powerful D.C.-based Covington and Burling law firm, which represents the AAP in litigation seeking to overturn Alabama’s ban on pediatric sex-change, about the appropriateness of pediatric sex-change.

“We recently reviewed a lengthy article in the New York Times Magazine entitled ‘The Battle Over Gender Therapy’ […]. Given the prominence of the NY Times and the tenor of the article, which raises many questions about the appropriateness of gender-affirming care, we expect the article may be cited in support of bans on gender affirming care,” the law firm wrote. “Below we’ve listed some points from the article which may be used to support such bans or to challenge our amicus briefs, and some questions from our team.”

Despite the AAP’s push to remove age minimums from the WPATH SOC-8, Rafferty, when referring to gender exploration, told the law firm that some youth “try it out” without needing intervention.

“Do some youth ‘try it out’ – Yes, as children grow up gender exploration is a NORMAL part of development and understanding the society roles [sic] around them. Exploring one’s gender does not mean that any intervention is necessary aside from support and assuring their safety,” wrote Rafferty.

Unmentioned Risks

In his response to the law firm’s questions, Rafferty described how puberty blockers can cause sterility in children and admitted there were no studies evaluating whether puberty suppression leads to sexual dysfunction.

“Long story short, if you start blockers early in puberty before the eggs or cells that give rise to sperm mature (essentially before someone starts to menstruate or ejaculate), then later go directly on directly to cross sex hormone, then you never allow the maturation to occur and will essentially be sterile,” wrote Rafferty.

Rafferty further explained that while patients who’ve received sex-change interventions may have physical limitations in the mechanics of sexual intercourse, the experience of being sexually intimate in their “chosen” sex was “worth so much more to them.”

“Sexual dysfunction: As far as I know there is no study that looks at this, and frankly it would be a difficult study to do,” wrote Rafferty.

“The mechanics of an ‘internal orgasm’ and pleasure are quite different than penile erection, climax, and release of semen,” Rafferty wrote. “A fundamental point, however, is that for many people who are trans female, penile stimulation and external orgasm may actually be quite dysphoric and lead to an aversion or avoidance of sexual activity. I see this commonly in my practice. In adults post-op, I commonly hear that while there may be limitations, the ability to experience intimacy with a partner in a way that is affirming, or simply to be naked and comfortable in one’s body around another person, is worth so much more to them. I know this is not “a study” but it is the experience so many patients have shared with me.”

Puberty blockers stop the maturation process of the reproductive organs, leaving boys with a small penis and lacking the penile tissue needed for vaginoplasty — a sex change surgery that uses genital tissue to create an imitation vagina for men. Rafferty discussed this in his email to the law firm.

“I will also say that a risk you do not mention for trans females who start on blockers early in puberty is that there may not be enough penile tissue to do an inversion and achieve a full depth vaginal cavity. They may take tissue from the GI track or elsewhere to try to extend the cavity but that has led to complications (e.g. GI tissue tends to secrete a lot of mucous and foul odor),” wrote Rafferty.

Rafferty also noted there had been an increase in “top surgery” among teenagers, which he attributed to Medicaid coverage making the surgeries more accessible.

“Today, we have 3 surgeons in [Rhode Island] doing these surgeries and probably half a dozen in [Massachusetts] plus a pediatric plastic surgeon at Boston Children’s specializing in gender surgeries. Most if not all now take Medicaid – very few patients are paying the fully cost of surgery out of pocket. So, the point is that my experience is not that surgery is ‘more popular’ but just more (or simply just) accessible.”

Rafferty did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Pursuit Of Excellence 

On September 15, 2022, WPATH released the SOC-8 without age minimums for child sex-change surgery. Upon its release, Hudson sent an internal memo with the AAP’s statement on the SOC-8, which included a FAQ about the AAP’s policy positions. The FAQ included the question, “What is the AAP’s position on the leaked recommendations on surgeries for minors?” The document gave the following answer: “AAP does not recommend surgical interventions for individuals younger than 18, except in rare cases.”

In December 2022, Jeff Hudson was awarded a Pursuit of Excellence award from the AAP for his work on behalf of “trans” youth, according to a LinkedIn post.

“I am extremely honored to have been awarded the AAP Pursuit of Excellence award for my work on behalf of trans and gender diverse youth,” Hudson wrote in the post.

The AAP previously provided the DCNF with a statement that confirmed their partnership with WPATH but explained that the AAP and peer organizations “develop policy guidance independently.”

“The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) routinely partners with relevant U.S. medical and mental health associations and global health organizations on a wide range of health issues, including the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH),” an AAP spokesperson told the DCNF.

“While this collaboration is important, the AAP develops policy guidance independently, as do its peer organizations.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics and Jeff Hudson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

Megan Brock

Contributor

RELATED ARTICLES:

‘Social Justice Lawyers’ Told WPATH To Avoid ‘Evidence-Based Review’ Of Sex-Change Guidelines For Minors, Docs Reveal

THE WPATH TAPES: Behind-The-Scenes Recordings Reveal What Top Gender Doctors Really Think About Sex Change Procedures

EXCLUSIVE: Top Pediatric Org Quietly Colluded With Trans Ideologues To Push Child

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Top Pediatric Org Quietly Colluded With Trans Ideologues To Push Child Sex Changes, Emails Show

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The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the nation’s preeminent pediatric medical organization, worked “very closely” with a transgender medical activist group to advocate for children to receive sex changes, according to emails obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Numerous Republican-led states have recently passed protective legislation banning minors from accessing experimental procedures, such as puberty blockers and genital surgery, as more and more evidence emerged challenging the justification for child sex changes. To combat these bans, the AAP quietly partnered with the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), a group that’s been widely criticized for pushing transgender ideology over sound medical science.

WPATH is a small but influential transgender medical organization that publishes clinical guidance for the sex change industry, called the Standards of Care. Their controversial guidance recommends children receive sterilizing and irreversible sex change interventions such as puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and sex change surgery.

The Cass Review, a recently-released report commissioned by the U.K’s National Health Service (NHS) to make evidence-based recommendations on caring for gender-confused youth, questioned the credibility of the WPATH Standards of Care, highlighting their lack of  “developmental rigour.”

While the AAP and WPATH had previously collaborated on multiple amicus briefs supporting legal challenges to child sex change bans, emails obtained by the DCNF reveal a far deeper level of coordination between the two organizations in pushing for children’s access to the procedures across the country. 

Members of both organizations regularly coordinated with one another, in some cases strategizing how to combat child sex change bans. Moreover, a board member of the United States Professional Association of Transgender Health (USPATH), a regional subsidiary of WPATH, wrote that expanding their partnership with the AAP was a “goal” of the organization.

A spokesperson for the AAP confirmed the collaboration between the AAP and WPATH.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) routinely partners with relevant U.S. medical and mental health associations and global health organizations on a wide range of health issues, including the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH),” the spokesperson said. “While this collaboration is important, the AAP develops policy guidance independently, as do its peer organizations.”

The DCNF obtained the emails between WPATH and AAP leadership through a public records request to West Virginia University (WVU) where Dr. Kacie Kidd and Dr. Lisa Costello are assistant professors at its medical school.

Kidd is a USPATH board member and the medical director of WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital Gender & Sexual Development Clinic. Costello is a member of the AAP Committee on State Government Affairs — which “coordinates all state legislative and regulatory issues of pediatric concern” — and the president of the West Virginia State Medical Association.

In December 2023, the AAP issued an internal memo stating members who serve in a leadership capacity or work on policy must refrain from using work emails for AAP business over privacy concerns, such as emails being subject to Freedom of Information Requests (FOIA).

Neither WPATH, the West Virginia University, Kidd, Hudson or Costello responded to multiple requests for comment.

‘Strong Partner’

The correspondences obtained by the DCNF demonstrate familiarity and collegiality between AAP and WPATH, and in many cases the two organizations appeared to share the same policy goals.

For instance, Jeff Hudson, manager of child welfare initiatives at the AAP, called WPATH a “strong partner” in the organization’s legal challenges to pediatric sex change bans in an email to Kidd and USPATH President Madeline Deutsch.

“WPATH has been and continues to be a strong partner in our amicus brief strategy supporting challenges to state bans on gender‐affirming care for TGD youth, so thank you for your continued engagement with us on those,” Hudson wrote.

“TGD youth” is an abbreviation for transgender and gender-diverse youth used in AAP publications.

“Gender-affirming care” is a euphemism often used by activists to describe the use of puberty suppressing drugs, cross-sex hormones and sex-change surgeries for gender-confused individuals, including children.

Hudson wrote he was communicating directly with WPATH President Marci Bowers about “opportunities to engage” together.

“I’m in direct touch with Dr. Bowers and we are thinking through opportunities to engage together,” wrote Hudson.

Hudson also wrote that he worked “very closely” with, and had “gotten to know,” WPATH’s executive leadership team. In December 2022 Hudson was awarded the AAP Pursuit of Excellence award for his pediatric transgender advocacy work, according to a LinkedIn post.

Bowers and Deutsch did not respond to requests for comment.

In September 2022, Kidd wrote to Costello asking for help connecting WPATH leadership to AAP leadership.

“I am currently at the WPATH meeting in Montreal and the WPATH and USPATH leadership have requested help from pediatricians working in gender care better connect with AAP leadership to develop further communication and support for pediatricians caring for transgender and gender diverse youth,” Kidd wrote.

Through email, Costello connected Kidd with AAP leaders Jamie Poslosky, Vice President of Strategic Communications, and Jeff Hudson.

In one email, Kidd told Poslosky, Hudson and USPATH President Madeline Deutsch that it was WPATH’s goal to partner with the AAP on messaging around pediatric sex reassignment.

“It is the goal of USPATH and the larger international organization, WPATH, to partner with the AAP and other medical and mental health organizations serving children and their families to produce joint and/or aligned messaging to support pediatricians and hospitals caring for transgender and gender diverse youth,” wrote Kidd.

Poslosky did not respond to a request for comment.

Hudson responded by setting up a meeting with Kidd to speak about her experiences working in pediatric transgender medicine. Several months later, Kidd spoke at the AAP’s March 2023 Advocacy conference in Washington, D.C.

Kidd’s workshop titled “Defending Evidence-Based Medicine: Gender-Affirming Care,” was slated to discuss the rise in legislative banning pediatric sex-reassignment as well as “advocacy strategies to engage on this issue, information to debunk the myths and misinformation, and messaging recommendations for speaking to state legislators.”

On the last day of the AAP Advocacy conference, March 28th, 2023, pediatricians were bused to Capitol Hill to meet with legislators, according to the conference itinerary.  A series of social media posts show Kidd and Costello meeting with legislators while wearing AAP advocacy buttons.

The DCNF published “The WPATH Tapes,” an in-depth investigation of nearly 30 hours of WPATH conference recordings that were obtained through a public records request. The exclusive footage showed that behind closed doors top WPATH doctors candidly discussed, and at times seemed to challenge, the organization’s own published guidelines for sex change procedures and acknowledged pushing experimental medical interventions that can have devastating and irreversible complications.

The tapes also revealed WPATH officials pushing members to “normalize” gender ideology, particularly in schools. Top WPATH officials also peddled beliefs at odds with long-established scientific understanding of human biology, including claiming that sex is “non-binary.” Moreover, WPATH members were also encouraged to prioritize things like “justice for trans people” over scientific evidence when considering treatments.

‘Highly Influential’

The emails between the AAP and WPATH are just the latest examples of how transgender activist organizations and prominent medical associations have worked hand-in-hand to promote child sex change procedures.

For instance, the AAP’s child sex change policy statement cites the WPATH Standards of Care, which supports puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex change surgeries for minors.

The Cass Review found that the WPATH Standards of Care underpinned almost all other guidelines in the field of transgender medicine despite their lack of “rigour.”

“[WPATH] has been highly influential in directing international practice, although its guidelines were found by the University of York appraisal process to lack developmental rigour,” the Cass Review found. “Early versions of two international guidelines – the Endocrine Society 2009 and WPATH 7 – influenced nearly all the other guidelines.”

Several European countries have discontinued child sex changes in the wake of the Cass Review, however, neither AAP nor WPATH have retracted their support of such procedures.

WPATH and USPATH released a three page statement challenging the findings of the Cass Review while AAP has remained somewhat reticent about the report’s findings. AAP President Dr. Benjamin Hoffman said his organization had reviewed the Cass Report and “added it to the evidence base undergoing a systematic review,” The New York Times reported.

“I urge my pediatric colleagues in the AAP to stand up to the AAP leadership and put an end to the harmful protocols they are recommending for children who are having distress over their biological sex,” Dr. Jill Simmons, executive director of the American College of Pediatricians (ACP), told the DCNF.

ACP called for an immediate end to pediatric sex change medicine in a published declaration, which says WPATH guidelines’ are “demonstrably flawed and pediatric patients can be harmed when subjected to those protocols.” ACP called on American medical associations, including the AAP, to move away from WPATH’s recommendations.

“The façade has been lifted from WPATH,” Simmons said. “They are not a professional organization nor are they grounded in science and we should not be relying on them to create medical protocols for our pediatric patients.”

AUTHOR

MEGAN BROCK

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Private Footage Reveals Leading Medical Org’s Efforts To ‘Normalize’ Gender Ideology

THE WPATH TAPES: Behind-The-Scenes Recordings Reveal What Top Gender Doctors Really Think About Sex Change Procedures

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

State Lawmakers Promise ‘Repercussions’ For Doctors Performing Child Sex Changes

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The State Freedom Caucus Network excoriated the American Medical Association (AMA) and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in a Wednesday letter over the groups’ support for child gender transitions and their recent request that the FBI investigate journalists who are critical of the procedures.

The AMA and AAP asked the FBI to prosecute individuals spreading negative information about child gender transitions and the medical facilities that performed them in a letter that emphasized “high-profile users on social media” Monday. Republican lawmakers from seven states then pledged to end cross-sex procedures for minors and impose repercussions on practices that continue to perform them in a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“With your advocacy of childhood genital mutilation, your call to investigate those who disagree with you, and your request for Big Tech to suppress constitutionally protected free speech that challenges your leftist ideology, you have lost whatever credibility you had left,” the letter read.

The State Freedom Caucus Network is a conservative organization that establishes Freedom Caucuses in state legislatures modeled after the Freedom Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, primarily focusing on reducing government power concentrated in federal agencies.

Child gender transitions, which can involve the administering of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries, have attracted national attention in recent months due in large part to popular social media accounts highlighting publicly available information about gender-related procedures being offered at children’s hospitals. Transgender activists have accused those accounts of targeted harassment and terrorism, pointing to an alleged bomb threat at Boston Children’s Hospital after Twitter users publicized gender transition treatments being offered to children there.

“They are ultimately pushing, and deciding for, these young children to take action which will result in irrevocable and irreparable harm. This so-called ‘gender affirming care’ is both morally and ethically repugnant,” the letter read. “We will fulfill our duty to stand in the gap and stop harm to any child by unnatural and irreversible procedures. As state legislators, we are particularly charged with ensuring taxpayer-funded institutions take no part in furthering ethically and morally repugnant agendas inconsistent with the values of our states.”

State representatives from Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Nevada, South Dakota, Illinois and Arizona signed the letter.

“Collectively, and across the country, we will be pursuing a path to ensure no minors can receive these barbaric procedures,” the lawmakers wrote. “This includes calling on our governors to denounce this practice and using all available tools to end it. If proven non-compliant, these facilities will face repercussions for practices inconsistent with the values of the citizens of our states. This mutilation cannot and will not be tolerated in any form.”

The AMA and AAP did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

LAUREL DUGGAN

Social and cultural reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Transgender doctors want the FBI to protect their dodgy ideology

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Three of America’s most powerful medical groups have teamed up to demand government protection for doctors and hospitals which provide transgender medicine and surgery for children.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Children’s Hospital Association have sent an open letter to US Attorney-General Merrick Garland urging him to “investigate the organizations, individuals, and entities coordinating, provoking, and carrying out bomb threats and threats of personal violence against children’s hospitals and physicians across the US.”

But that’s not all. The troika also want the government and social media companies to gag critics who spread “disinformation”.

“The attacks,” they write, “are rooted in an intentional campaign of disinformation, where a few high-profile users on social media share false and misleading information targeting individual physicians and hospitals, resulting in a rapid escalation of threats, harassment, and disruption of care across multiple jurisdictions.”

One of these “high-profile users”, investigative journalist Christopher Rufo, responded immediately. “I have a message for Attorney General Merrick Garland: you can threaten us; you can mobilize the FBI against us; you can drag us out of our homes in a pre-dawn raid. But we are not going to stop reporting on radical gender surgeries on minors.”

“Mobilizing the FBI” sounds absurd — but it’s not. The FBI, which reports to the Department of Justice and the Attorney-General, recently arrested a pro-life activist, Mark Houck, over an alleged altercation in front of a Philadelphia abortion clinic in October last year. It was an event so petty that the District Court of Philadelphia threw the case out.

The complainant went to the FBI. Houck’s wife claims that about 25 agents raided their home with guns drawn, handcuffed her husband in front of their seven children, and hauled him away. The FBI disputes her version of events and Houck has pleaded not guilty and has been freed on bail.

But the incident shows what could happen if the Attorney-General decides to take the troika’s letter seriously.

What he hasn’t taken seriously is violence against pro-lifers. That’s a real issue. An elderly pro-life volunteer was shot in Michigan last month, although she was not seriously hurt.

The activist group Catholic Vote has documented 73 incidents in which pregnancy support centers and offices of pro-life groups have been attacked and vandalized since early May.

The militant abortion rights group Jane’s Revenge’s signature message is: “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either.” It has claimed responsibility for at least 18 attacks but not a single arrest has been made.

Admittedly, there have been hostile posts on social media about Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s transgender clinic after The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh exposed its activities and business practices. Staff at the Boston Children’s Hospital’s Center for Gender Surgery have been barraged with hostile messages on social media and there was one bomb threat. Perhaps these prompted the troika’s letter.

Violence must always be condemned. Anyone who threatens or attacks doctors and hospitals providing transgender medicine should be punished. But even the letter from the troika did not mention a single act of violence. No fire-bombing, no graffiti, no vandalism. Certainly no one has been shot.

What must be condemned is the violence that the billion-dollar transgender industry imposes upon American children as it pockets their cash. Mastectomies and castrations are the handiwork of deranged ideologues, not real scientists.

In science and medicine, the way to silence critics is to present clear and irrefutable evidence, not to threaten them with deplatforming, cancellation, and FBI handcuffs. But that’s essentially what three of America’s leading medical organisations are doing. It’s the kind of tactic that the Soviets used to enforce the Marxist-Leninist bogus biology of Lysenkoism.

The troika asserts that transgender clinics are providing “evidence-based health care”. But that evidence is being challenged by leading medical authorities inside and outside the United States, by the lived experience of transitioners, and by numerous highly competent journalists. The most toxic disinformation of all is oozing out from the transgender industry itself.

The open letter doesn’t mention any of the following developments in the world of transgender medicine:

  • In the United Kingdom, the Tavistock clinic – which has been “the model for treating trans people around the world” — was forced to close its doors. It is not, according to an interim report by a professor of paediatrics, Hilary Cass, “a safe or viable long-term option in view of concerns about lack of peer review and the ability to respond to the increasing demand.” In fact, she went on to say that there are “gaps in the evidence base regarding all aspects of gender care for children and young people, from epidemiology through to assessment, diagnosis, support, counselling and treatment.”
  • In France, the National Academy of Medicine declared earlier this year: “great medical caution must be taken in children and adolescents, given the vulnerability, particularly psychological, of this population and the many undesirable effects and even serious complications that can be caused by some of the therapies available”.
  • In Sweden, the National Board of Health and Welfare issued new guidelines for gender-affirming care in February. It said, based on current knowledge: “the risks of puberty suppressing treatment with GnRH-analogues and gender-affirming hormonal treatment currently outweigh the possible benefits, and that the treatments should be offered only in exceptional cases.”
  • In Finland, the Finnish Health Authority (PALKO/COHERE) reversed course in 2020. Its new guidance stated that “psychotherapy, rather than puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, should be the first-line treatment for gender-dysphoric youth”.

The real explanation for this letter must be that doctors providing transgender medicine are running scared. They’re afraid that their house of cards will be blown away by the facts. But if they can’t persuade, they can still bloviate, bluster, and bully. And that’s what they’re doing.

AUTHOR

Michael Cook

Michael Cook is the editor of MercatorNet. He lives in Sydney, Australia. More by Michael Cook

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‘OPEN THE SCHOOLS’: President Trump Calls For Defunding Schools That Remain Shuttered

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President Donald Trump demanded that Democrats assist him in re-opening public schools on Thursday, saying schools that remain closed should lose government funding.

Trump has pressed for reopening schools for weeks, making several threats to limit or cut funding altogether if children continue to be forced into distance learning. The main opposition to reopening comes from teachers unions, which consistently align with the Democrats.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1304055016731422722?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1304055016731422722%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdailycaller.com%2F2020%2F09%2F10%2Ftrump-schools-reopen-democrats-funding%2F

Trump first began his push to reopen schools in July, arguing that his Democratic opponents were halting the reopening process for political reasons.

“We have to open our schools. Open our schools. Stop this nonsense,” Trump said Thursday. “It’s only political nonsense. They don’t want to open because they think it will help them on November 3rd. I think it will hurt them on November 3rd.”

Governors across the country ordered schools to close for the final months of the 2019-2020 school year, but states and districts disagree on when classrooms should reopen. The Trump administration released a set of eight recommendations in August for how schools can safely reopen.

The White House recommendations are as follows:

  • Educate teachers and students about the symptoms of COVID-19
  • Require students and teachers to “self-assess” their health each morning
  • Encourage frequent hand washing
  • Minimize large, indoor gatherings
  • Maintain high levels of ventilation in classrooms
  • Require students and teachers to socially distance from “high-risk individuals”
  • Encourage the use of masks
  • Post instructions for hygiene and social distancing around the school

Trump maintains that distanced learning is not an adequate replacement for schooling.

“When you sit at home in a basement looking at a computer, your brain starts to wither away,” Trump said when announcing the recommendations. “We have a lot of good experience at that just by taking a look at what’s happening in politics.”

Trump’s comments echoed those of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which came forward last month to urge state governments to reopen schools in the fall, saying risk of COVID-19 spread among students is low. The group also said dangers of keeping students home and away from learning outweighs the potential risk of spread.

“Lengthy time away from school and associated interruption of supportive services often results in social isolation, making it difficult for schools to identify and address important learning deficits as well as child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation,” the group said according to U.S. News.

COLUMN BY

ANDERS HAGSTROM

White House correspondent.

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