Tag Archive for: child sex changes

Tennessee AG Says SCOTUS Could Pave Way To Ending Child Sex Changes And Saving Women’s Sports With Just One Ruling

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The Supreme Court’s forthcoming ruling on state child sex change bans could impact a range of issues related to gender identity, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The justices heard oral arguments Wednesday on Tennessee’s law banning medical procedures intended to help a child live as an identity “inconsistent” with their sex, which the Biden administration argues violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

“There’s been no constitutional analysis of gender identity issues from the court prior to this,” Skrmetti told the DCNF on Thursday. “In the Bostock case, they were looking at statutory language.”

In the high court’s 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County decision, the majority held that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity equates to sex discrimination in the employment context.

“So potentially, there could be language in the opinion that significantly impacts not just the protection for kids from gender related procedures with life-altering impact,” Skrmetti said. “There could be an impact on litigation about women’s sports teams, about bathroom privacy, potentially other areas of law.”

Skrmetti believes his team did a great job defending the case before the court but acknowledges “you never want to predict” what is going to happen. Win or lose, the court could opt to issue a narrow ruling, or something broader and precedent-setting.

“The court asked a lot of brilliant questions,” he said. “It was a long argument because I think they recognize this could be a significant case precedentially, and they have months now to think about it and work through it, so there’s a long way to go before we get a decision.”

Several conservative justices pointed to European countries limiting gender transition procedures for children. Justice Samuel Alito questioned why the government claimed that overwhelming evidence supports the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy while failing to acknowledge studies indicating otherwise, such as the Cass report commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS) England.

Meanwhile, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson drew a parallel between banning child sex changes and bans on interracial marriage. “I’m worried that we’re undermining the foundations of some of our bedrock equal protection cases,” she said.

Tennessee contends its law does not draw lines based on sex, but based on medical purpose. Giving testosterone to a girl will have vastly different effects than giving it to a boy, the state argues.

Nearly half of all U.S. states have passed laws like Tennessee’s. Skrmetti is certain that this won’t be a decision of “no consequence.”

“The risks to kids are profound. You’re talking about potential lifelong loss of the ability to have children, the lifelong loss of the ability to have sexual function, a life of dealing with tumors and blood clots, bone density disorders, cognitive impairments,” he said. “So it’s not something to be taken lightly.”

AUTHOR

Katelynn Richardson

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Supreme Court Tips Its Hand on Transgender Procedures for Minors

SCOTUS Conservatives Seem Ready To Uphold Child Sex Change Bans — But One Justice Is A Wild Card

As SCOTUS Considers Major Trans Case, Pleas for Children to Be Protected Abound

DOJ Doubles Down on Gag Order of Surgeon Who Blew Whistle on Child Sex Changes

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.

‘Not Going To Be Silenced’: Surgeon Indicted By Biden DOJ For Blowing Whistle On Child Sex Changes Speaks Out

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently indicted Texas surgeon Dr. Eithan Haim, who blew the whistle on a children’s hospital performing sex change procedures on minors. Haim told the Daily Caller News Foundation he will not be intimidated or silenced, vowing to fight the allegations in court.

In 2023, Haim discovered Texas Children’s Hospital was performing pediatric sex change procedures despite hospital administrators previously telling the public that their child gender program had been shut down. Haim provided documentation of the procedures to journalist Christopher Rufo, who published a May 2023 story in City Journal and on Substack exposing Texas Children’s Hospital. Shortly after the story was published, the Texas Legislature passed a bill banning pediatric sex change procedures statewide.

However, in June 2023, federal agents arrived at Haim’s home, notifying him of he may be the subject of a potential criminal investigation related to the published whistleblower documents, according to his fundraising page. The Biden DOJ was investigating Haim for alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), a federal law that protects individually identifiable health information, such as a patient’s name. 

Haim has long maintained that the documents he provided Rufo did not include any such information. Rufo, who first reported Haim’s indictment in City Journal, wrote that he “can confirm that nothing in the information provided to me identified any individual; all the documents were, in fact, carefully redacted.”

Threats of prosecution materialized this week when U.S. marshals appeared at Haim’s home and summoned him to appear in court Monday. Haim is charged with four felony counts of violating HIPPA, according to City Journal.

Haim told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview that he is not intimidated by the indictment.

“The most important thing is that, at this point, its game time,” Haim said. “We’re entering the arena, we have to fight back. I’m not going to be silenced, I’m not going to be intimidated. The most likely chance we have of winning, is to win this in court.”

On January 24, 2024, Haim’s legal team sent a letter to Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Chip Roy of Texas refuting the legitimacy of the claims made against Haim by federal prosecutor Tina Ansari.

The letter asserts the prosecution’s investigation was based on the “easily disproved falsehood” that the documents Haim provided contained children’s names.

“Yet it is obvious from a quick glance that all patient information is redacted,” Haim’s lawyers wrote. “Thus, either someone intentionally misrepresenting this critical fact, or the investigation proceeded without anyone verifying the most basic facts about what happened.”

Haim estimates it will cost at least $500,000 to fight the charges in court.

“What that requires is at least $500,000 to pursue this federal trial with our attorneys,” Haim said.

His fundraising page shows he’s currently raised just over $310,000.

“Dr. Haim blew the whistle against a hospital that proclaimed it had stopped performing gender-changing surgeries and treatments on minors, when, in fact, it had not,” Haim’s lawyer Mark Lytle told the DCNF. “These surgeries are a violation of Texas law. Dr. Haim was brave in coming forward. Now the federal government is coming after him. He will strongly defend himself at trial and we expect he will be found not guilty.”

Haim maintains medical providers should be able to openly talk about procedures happening at their institutions, a sentiment core to his story.

“There’s nothing a doctor should do behind closed doors that they’re unwilling to defend in public,” Haim told the DCNF.  “That’s never how medicine should be, especially when it involves children.”

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

MEGAN BROCK

Contributor.

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

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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.

‘I’m Finished With This Stiff’: Trump Blasts Mike DeWine For Vetoing Ban On Child Sex Changes

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Former President Donald Trump blasted Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio Saturday over the governor’s veto of a bill banning child sex changes.

DeWine announced the veto of the legislation, House Bill 68, Friday despite its overwhelming passage by the state legislature. The bill not only banned child sex changes, but it also prohibited biological males from competing in women’s sports. “DeWine has fallen to the Radical Left,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “No wonder he gets loudly booed in Ohio every time I introduce him at Rallies, but I won’t be introducing him any more. I’m finished with this ‘stiff.’”

“What was he thinking,” Trump continued. “The bill would have stopped child mutilation, and prevented men from playing in women’s sports. Legislature will hopefully overturn. Do it FAST!!!”

The issue of biological males competing in women’s sports after identifying as transgender became controversial in the United States following University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas’s participation in the 2022 NCAA championships. The biological male, who previously ranked at #462 as a male swimmer, won the 500-yard women’s final and placed highly in other events.

Many Republicans criticized DeWine over the veto, including Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose of Ohio.

Trump endorsed DeWine during his reelection bid in 2022.

Some detransitioners, including Chloe Cole, who transitioned as a teenager before stopping, have filed lawsuits against medical professionals who carried out so-called “gender-affirming” procedures.

AUTHOR

HAROLD HUTCHISON

Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘This Boils Down To Money’: Fox News Guest Blasts GOP Gov Who Vetoed Child Sex Change Ban

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.

‘Democrats Agree’: Activists Are Teaming Up To Fight Sex Change Surgeries For Minors In This Blue State

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  • Activists in California from both political parties are banding together to put measures on the state ballot that would ban child sex change surgeries and ensure fairness in women’s spaces, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
  • Protect Kids California filed three statewide ballot initiatives Monday, and the group leaders believe they have bipartisan support on the issues. 
  • “The media and the California legislators make it seem that it’s a Democrat versus Republican issue, but it’s not. I would say the majority of Democrats agree with us on this,” Sophia Lorey, a female rights activist who spoke at the announcement of the initiatives, told the DCNF.

California activists from both political parties are teaming up to put measures on the state ballot that would ban child sex change surgeries and ensure fairness in women’s spaces, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Protect Kids California, a group formed by Jonathan Zachreson, a Republican, and Erin Friday, a Democrat, filed three statewide ballot initiatives on Monday to ban child sex changes and puberty blockers, keep men out of women’s sports and require school officials to inform parents if a child wants to transition his or her gender. The pair has support from both sides of the political aisle in their effort to push the initiatives through, they told the DCNF.

“The media and the California legislators make it seem that it’s a Democrat versus Republican issue, but it’s not. I would say the majority of Democrats agree with us on this,” Sophia Lorey, a female rights activist who spoke at the announcement of the initiatives, told the DCNF.

The Protect Children From Reproductive Harm Act would ban child sex change surgeries and puberty blockers in the state, according to the ballot initiative. The School Transparency And Partnership Act would require that school officials inform parents if a student decides they want to be referred to as a gender different than his or her biological sex, and the Protect Girls’ Sports And Spaces Act would establish sex-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms while banning males from competing in female sports.

The initiatives would require 550,000 signatures to make it on the ballot, which would then be voted on to determine if the initiatives would be enacted as law in California, according to the state’s ballot initiative guide.

Friday’s motivation for helping file the initiatives stems from her own personal experiences with gender ideology, as her daughter was socially transitioned at school without her knowledge, she told the DCNF.

“All of these groups, including what I would say are far-left groups, the same sex attracted groups, Gays Against Groomers, the lesbian groups, the feminist groups, we are all holding hands on this issue,” Friday told the DCNF. “The Democrats should be reading the tea leaves.”

A May Gallup poll revealed that Americans’ support for transgender athletes competing as the gender they identify with has fallen in the past two years. Approximately 34% of participants said they’d support a transgender athlete playing on a team that matches their gender identity in 2021 compared to 26% in 2023.

Support among Democrats for transgender athletes playing on teams that match their gender identity decreased from 55% to 47%, according to the poll.

Lorey told the DCNF that “there is not really any tension that arises” when she is working with Democrat activists in the state to counter gender ideology policies, such as allowing men in women’s sports or child sex changes.

“It’s okay that we don’t agree on things,” Lorey said. “We need to find ways to work together on the things we agree with.”

“I have friends who have been hardcore lifelong Democrats, and they are fighting right alongside me on this,” Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD), told the DCNF.

The CVUSD recently passed a parental notification policy in July that would require teachers to inform parents if their child asked to identify as a different gender at school. Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the district in August, arguing the rule is unconstitutional.

Parents in the district are begging the school board “not to back down,” Shaw said.

“The real question comes down to are you okay with removing healthy body parts of a child, and if your answer is no, then you’re a part of this coalition,” Friday told the DCNF.

Bonta did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

BRANDON POULTER

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘It’s Biology’: Activists Unveil Statewide Ballot Initiative To Ban Child Sex Changes

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.