Tag Archive for: transgender

Unsealed Court Docs Show Top Gender Medical Org Twisting Science For Politics, Colluding With Biden Admin Official

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A Biden administration official pressured the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) to quickly issue its Standards of Care Version 8 (SoC 8) guidelines and remove minimum age recommendations for transgender procedures, despite a glaring lack of scientific justification, according to unsealed court documents.

Canadian sex researcher James Cantor wrote in an unsealed expert report that WPATH saw “evidence-based” medicine as a threat to its “policy goals,” allowing its S0C-8 to be influenced by “political pressure, litigation and legislative advocacy strategy, and the financial self-interest of WPATH members.” Internal WPATH communications contained in Cantor’s report reveal Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine pushed for the development of SoC 8 in order to advance the Biden administration’s political goals, even having a staff member suggest the removal of “specific listings of ages” that could “result in devastating legislation for trans care.”

“I have just spoken to Admiral Levine today, who—as always is extremely supportive of the SOC 8, but also very eager for its release—so to ensure integration in the US health policies of the Biden government,” one message from a WPATH member states. “So, let’s crack on with the job!!!”

Another message stated Levine’s eagerness “should be taken as a charge from the United States government to do what is required to complete the project immediately.”

Despite these concessions, internal communications show certain WPATH members responsible for developing the guidelines agreed with concerns that youth were receiving “sloppy” medical care and worried about the strength of their evidence. Additionally, members recognized privately there is “no agreement” on the use of puberty blockers.

“I’m not clear on which ‘agreement regarding the value of blockers’ is required to be espoused by a WPATH member/mentor,” one message states. “My understanding is that a global consensus on ‘puberty blockers’ does not exist.”

Cantor further claims that WPATH did not ask SoC-8 committee members to identify conflicts of interest, even though some members worked as paid expert witnesses in legal cases relating to transgender procedures.

Moreover, one member of the development group later explained during WPATH’s annual conference that minimum age recommendations were removed “to protect clinicians from lawsuit should the clinician decide to provide a treatment to someone younger than a specified age minimum.”

“Again, this reflects both the existence and the harmful impact of the financial conflict of interest that WPATH and its members faced while developing SOC-8,” Cantor wrote.

Cantor’s report is part of a case, Boe v. Marshall, challenging Alabama’s ban on sex change procedures for minors. WPATH released its SoC 8 in September 2022, rolling back prior recommendations that set age limits for various procedures.

The White House, the HHS and WPATH did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

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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.

‘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.

RELATED ARTICLES:

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

American Doctors Sign Declaration Protecting Children from Gender 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.

EXCLUSIVE: New Documentary Details Female Sexual Assault Survivor’s Story Of Being Incarcerated With Trans Inmate

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A sexual assault survivor gave an inside look at living in a female prison with male criminals identifying as transgender in a new documentary by the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) released Tuesday.

The 6-minute documentary, part of IWF’s “Cruel & Unusual Punishment: The Male Takeover of Female Prisons” series, focuses on the story of Evelyn Valiente, a sexual assault survivor and former inmate at the Central California Women’s Facility. Valiente, who is using a pseudonym to protect her identity, was forced to share a housing unit with a male inmate identifying as a woman while serving time for killing someone in a shooting.

“At first I thought it was going to be okay and it didn’t take long before this one particular individual was manipulative, calculating, vindictive and always looking and seeking to do harm to another person,” Valiente said regarding the inmate, who had a history of sex crime convictions.

In 2020, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed legislation requiring the state’s prison system to house inmates based on their gender identity and not their biological sex. Under the law, corrections officers are required to ask inmates privately how they identify and then work to house them accordingly.

Before her time in prison, Valiente had been sexually assaulted, and said that being in the same housing unit as this individual, who had been convicted of sex crimes, as well as other men made it “scary” not only for her but for many women who had “come from very abusive backgrounds.”

“It’s a lot of walking in trauma,” Valiente said.

WATCH:

Andrea Mew, IWF’s storytelling manager and co-producer of the documentary series, told the DCNF that while California lawmakers claimed that the transgender inmate bill was about keeping inmates safe, the law actually further victimized women in prison who often have been abused.

“It’s really interesting that California, at the same time that they are focusing on being all about rehabilitation, are subjecting women to being re-traumatized by a lot of their personal triggers,” Mew said. “Many women who are in prison are victims of sexual assault, emotional abuse, physical abuse and having men in their spaces can be a very big trigger for them. At the same time, it’s allowing violent male criminals to have unbridled access to, in many cases, the thing that got them there in the first place.”

Mary Xjimenez, a CDCR information officer, told the DCNF that they are “committed to providing a safe, humane, respectful and rehabilitative environment for all incarcerated people.”

“Senate Bill 132, The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, became effective on January 1, 2021. It allows incarcerated transgender, non-binary and intersex people to request to be housed and searched in a manner consistent with their gender identity,” Xjimenez explained in a written statement. “CDCR reviews every request to be transferred under Senate Bill 132 to determine whether that move, based on the individual’s case factors, would present a safety and management concern. At all our institutions, CDCR thoroughly investigates all allegations of sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, and sexual harassment pursuant to our zero-tolerance policy and as mandated by the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.”

Currently, five states: Connecticut; Rhode Island; Massachusetts; California and New Jersey as well as New York City; have passed laws allowing men identifying as women to be housed in women’s prisons. However, other states, such as Wisconsin, have reportedly moved biologically male offenders identifying as transgender into all-female facilities despite their violent criminal history.

In September 2023, a female inmate sued the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in New Jersey after allegedly being assaulted in prison by a male inmate identifying as transgender. Another female inmate from New York City filed a lawsuit in January, claiming that a prison official instructed a male inmate who reportedly sexually assaulted her to identify as transgender so he could have “access to female inmates.”

Mew told the DCNF that she and co-producer Kelsey Bolar wanted people to imagine how they would feel if someone they loved in prison was forced to share a cell or a housing unit with a transgender inmate with a history of violence.

“People need to put themselves in the shoes of people who are in prison and just imagine yourself in there, imagine your own daughter in there,” Mew said. “There are a lot of things that could happen that could get you into prison that are complete accidents, so imagine yourself or your own daughter is in that sort of accident. Put yourself in the shoes of the person there and think about how it would feel if you’re being physically, emotionally and in some cases, as we’ve seen, sexually threatened by male criminals while you’re just trying to do your time and get home.”

AUTHOR

KATE ANDERSON

Contributor.

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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.

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

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The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) is the leading authority in the field of gender medicine. Its guidance is routinely used by top medical associations in the U.S. and abroad, while its standards of care inform insurance companies’ approach to coverage policies.

But behind closed doors, top WPATH doctors 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, according to exclusive footage obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

WPATH published highly influential clinical guidance called “Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8” (SOC 8), which recommends the use of invasive medical interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex change surgeries, calling them “safe and effective.”

The DCNF filed a series of public records requests to WPATH SOC 8 co-authors who are employed at taxpayer-funded institutions, making their emails subject to open records laws. Buried in more than 100 pages of responsive records from the University of Nevada was a series of emails between prominent WPATH members and leaders, including WPATH Global Education Institute (GEI) Co-Chair Gail Knudson, that were sent in 2022. In one email, Knudson sent a colleague the link to a folder containing nearly 30 hours of recordings from WPATH’s GEI summit in September 2022 in Montreal, Canada, which included sessions on mental health, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex change surgery.

These sessions provided WPATH members with in-depth education on the clinical application of topics addressed in the SOC 8 treatment guidelines. However, the footage reveals WPATH-affiliated doctors advocating for children to undergo risky sex change procedures and even pushing for these treatments for patients struggling with severe mental health issues. Several sessions were dedicated exclusively to treating children and included recommendations for minors to receive puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries.

For instance, WPATH guidance recommends addressing a patient’s mental health issues before giving them sex change medical interventions. However, in one recorded session, a WPATH faculty member and gender doctor claimed that mental health issues don’t necessarily affect a patient’s ability to receive cross-sex hormones.

READ: Top Psychiatrist Argues Schizophrenic Patients Can Consent To Sex Change Surgeries

In another video, a doctor told attendees children should be informed that cross-sex hormones will likely make them infertile but admitted that he will prescribe them anyway if a child says they want the treatment, regardless of the future consequences.

READ: ‘No Idea About Their Fertility’: Gender Doctors Shed Light On Grim Reality Facing Kids Considering Sex Changes

A surgeon euphemistically referred to a phalloplasty procedure, a surgical series that includes obliterating the vaginal cavity and creating a fake penis with harvested tissue, as an “adventure” for young people. He did this despite later admitting that those same procedures will “definitely” have “complications,” such as permanent issues with bladder function and tissue death.

READ: Gender Doctor Calls Genital Surgery An ‘Adventure’ For Young People While Describing Grisly Complications

One physician called the entire field of cross-sex hormones “off-label,” referring to the concept of drugs being used for alternative purposes than what they were approved for. The doctor went on to say that female patients might actually appreciate drug side effects that cause them to lose hair, because they’d look “more like men.”

READ: Video Shows Prominent Doctors Acknowledging, And Even Challenging, The Experimental Nature Of Sex Change Drugs

The Food and Drug Administration says that when it approves a drug, healthcare providers generally may prescribe that drug for an unapproved use, or off-label, when “they judge that it is medically appropriate for their patient.”

In several other videos, doctors argued in favor of transitioning patients who experience psychotic episodes. One admitted that some of his patients with schizophrenia have to be careful how much cross-sex hormones they take or they can’t “keep the voices down.”

READ: ‘Keep The Voices Down’: In Unearthed Video, Doctors Discuss Putting Mentally Ill Patients, Including Kids, On Hormones

The DCNF consulted medical professionals from respected organizations, such as Do No Harm, who all argued that the comments from WPATH-affiliated doctors show that the transgender medical industry does not have patients’ best interests at heart.

While the average person, nationally and internationally, likely has never heard of WPATH, the modern medical industry is deeply tied to the organization and relies on it to dictate the standards of care for transgender medicine. WPATH’s guidelines are cited as criteria for obtaining insurance coverage by both private insurance companies and tax-funded insurance plans, positioning them as a lynchpin of the sex reassignment industry.

Additionally, their guidelines help inform policy statements from major medical and professional organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Psychological Association and the Endocrine Society. The AAP is currently being sued by Isabelle Ayala, a former patient who was medically transitioned as a child, for allegedly rushing her through sex change medical procedures.

There’s been an explosion in the number of young people, including children, being put on hormones and puberty blockers and getting sex change surgeries, according to a study published in August 2023 by the JAMA Network. This surge has been fueled, in part, by groups like Planned Parenthood, which distributes cross-sex hormones to patients as young as 16. Planned Parenthood saw a roughly 125% jump in the number of transgender services it provided between 2020 and 2022.

Twenty-three states, however, have enacted legislation preventing doctors from performing sex change surgeries on minors amid backlash from concerned parents and doctors who don’t subscribe to the WPATH-endorsed “gender-affirming care” model. Gender-affirming care is another euphemism used by medical professionals to describe the idea that doctors should affirm a patient’s wish to live as the opposite biological sex through social transitioning, hormone therapy and even surgery.

The SOC 8 was released just days ahead of the 2022 symposium and contained several significant changes to how doctors and medical institutions implemented transgender medical treatment. For instance, WPATH removed minimum age requirements criteria that established when a child can or should receive transgender medical services such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex reassignment surgeries.

WPATH’s previous guidelines recommended that hormone therapy be given once a patient was over the age of 16, but the updated version removed this barrier and suggests hormone therapy begin at the first signs of sexual maturity.

The videos obtained by the DCNF give the first glimpse at how doctors and mental health professionals discussed implementing the new guidelines. To highlight the most significant portions of the content obtained in the records requests, the DCNF has decided to publish a series of articles collectively called “The WPATH Tapes.”

Following this release, the DCNF intends to publish all of the videos in their entirety in order to provide the public with necessary information about WPATH’s approach to medical care and shine a light on an influential organization that has largely remained anonymous until now.

The WPATH Tapes Table of Contents:

  1. Video Shows Prominent Doctors Acknowledging, And Even Challenging, The Experimental Nature Of Sex Change Drugs
  2. Top Psychiatrist Argues Schizophrenic Patients Can Consent To Sex Change Surgeries
  3. ‘Keep The Voices Down’: In Unearthed Video, Doctors Discuss Putting Mentally Ill Patients, Including Kids, On Hormones
  4. Gender Doctor Calls Genital Surgery An ‘Adventure’ For Young People While Describing Grisly Complications
  5. ‘No Idea About Their Fertility’: Gender Doctors Shed Light On Grim Reality Facing Kids Considering Sex Changes
  6. Leader Of Gender Medicine Org Says Binary Sex ‘Doesn’t Really Hold True,’ Cheers On ‘Deconstructed’ Biology
  7. Private Footage Reveals Leading Medical Org’s Efforts To ‘Normalize’ Gender Ideology

AUTHORS

MEGAN BROCK AND KATE ANDERSON

Contributors.

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Gender Doctor Calls Genital Surgery An ‘Adventure’ For Young People While Describing Grisly Complications

‘Keep The Voices Down’: In Unearthed Video, Doctors Discuss Putting Mentally Ill Patients, Including Kids, On Hormones

EXCLUSIVE: Top Doctors Complain Detransitioners Posed ‘Harm’ To Trans Members At Medical Conference

EXCLUSIVE: Gender Doctor Says Parents Who Oppose Transitioning Their Kid Have ‘Mental Illness’

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.

Military Could Hit Troops With Courts-Martial For Refusing To Use Preferred Pronouns, Experts Say

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The military could seek to formally punish service members for refusing to use another service member’s preferred pronouns under existing policy, according to military experts.

A 2020 Equal Opportunity law opened the door for commanders to subject someone who refuses to affirm a transgender servicemember’s so-called gender identity to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) for charges related to harassment, Capt. Thomas Wheatley, an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Such a move would likely infringe on a servicemember’s constitutional rights to uphold their conscience, but it might not prevent leaders from employing more subtle ways of disciplining service members.

Military experts told the DCNF Congress should step in before it’s too late.

The military “is right to want to protect the rights and welfare of its transgender service members. But it owes the same protection to those who share a different perspective on the issue, especially when that perspective is a deep-seated expression of personal conscience,” Wheatley told the DCNF.

None of the military’s rules explicitly prohibit so-called “misgendering,” when someone uses pronouns to describe a transgender person which do not correspond to the person’s new gender identity, Wheatley explained. However, existing guidance implies that using pronouns rejected by another person violates Military Equal Opportunity (MEO) regulations against sex-based harassment and discrimination.

The UCMJ enforces those regulations.

Service members could conceivably be court-martialed for “refusing to use another person’s self-identified pronouns, even when their refusal stems from principled religious conviction,” Wheatley told the DCNF. “This law applies to service members at all times and in all locations, even when they’re off duty and in the privacy of their off-post residence.”

The UCMJ also prohibits “conduct unbecoming of an officer” under Article 133 and activity that could be seen to discredit the military institution under Article 134 — the same article the military uses to prosecute child pornographers and other acts of sexual deviance, he explained.

“Is it now ‘unbecoming’ and incompatible with service as a commissioned officer to openly hold sincere religious convictions surrounding the act of creation and the nature of human sex?” Wheatley asked.

Wheatley said his interest in the issue was sparked four years ago, when the Army updated its MEO policy stating “violations of MEO and Harassment Prevention and Response policies may result in disciplinary action under the UCMJ.”

The possibility of levying a criminal trial on a servicemember for perceived harassment if that person “misgendered” another service member troubled Wheatley, he said. The Supreme Court had just ruled on Bostock v. Clayton County in favor of the gay and transgender plaintiffs alleging their employers fired them on the basis of their self-described sexual orientation, or gender identity. Conservative justices warned the case could have far-reaching consequences for organizations operating based on religious belief and free exercise of religion in the workplace.

“I knew, given the cultural gap between the civilian world and the military, the issue would be overlooked as it concerned service members. So, I got to work,” he told the DCNF.

In a peer reviewed article recently published in the Texas Review of Law and Politics, Wheatley argued that, despite the existing EO policy, Articles 133 and 134 of the UCMJ are not strong enough to prosecute troops for spurning another’s preferred pronouns.

Under a legal doctrine that “obligates military courts to avoid interpreting the UCMJ in a way that brings it into conflict with the Constitution if possible, that would normally be the end of the analysis,” he wrote. But, the national security imperatives inbuilt with military service often justify curtailing a servicemember’s constitutional rights — for example, the UCMJ’s Article 134 “indecent language.”

Wheatley countered in the article that the military’s special mission can inform judicial analysis but does not require a separate standard.

“A court that applies a standard lower than strict scrutiny would be placing not just a thumb on the scale in the government’s favor, but an anvil — one which virtually guarantees victory for the government in every case where a service member asserts his or her First Amendment rights,” he wrote. It would be “tough” for the military to prove it had a strong enough mission-related argument to mandate gender-pronoun usage.

Arguments that might be considered, such as preserving harmony within military units and safeguarding transgender troops’ emotional and psychological well-being, are certainly important, he wrote. But the former relies too heavily on the vicissitudes of individual interpretation to survive judicial review, while the latter does not take into account the health of the servicemember seeking to live out their religious convictions.

“Preserving unit cohesion and safeguarding the mental and emotional health of transgender service members, though compelling government interests, do not justify the sweeping prior restraints on speech,” made possible in the Army policy, Wheatley wrote.

Previous case law shows that even in military contexts, the standard for what may be prohibited compelled speech is strong, he found.

Looking at previous cases of public employment law governing speech, where free speech has been more frequently challenged than in military-specific case law, he likewise found no strong case for mandating pronoun use.

“The use of one pronoun over another reflects the speaker’s private views on human sex and gender” and isn’t conditioned on the person’s employment, Wheatley argued.

The Pentagon referred the DCNF to the services, which did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

Wheatley’s research highlights ongoing concerns about the military’s respect for matters of conscience.

Pentagon leaders have pushed diversity and inclusion as an indispensable component of warfighting effectiveness. Opponents say the focus focus on race, gender and sexual identity has distracted the military from more important issues and unfairly privileged minorities. DEI priorities have now overtaken matters of conscience in multiple domains. 

In lawsuits over the slow-rolling of religious waivers to the COVID-19 vaccine, for example, victims argued the services issued blanket denials rather than considering each request individually, as they are legally required to do.

Defense Department documents, including the 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Strategic Plan, discuss the freedom to “speak candidly” about issues as a “readiness imperative,” ensuring troops feel included as part of a whole.

“The military policy and legal infrastructure clearly exist to wage war on Americans with deeply-held traditional beliefs about man and woman,” William Thibeau, director of the Claremont Institute’s American Military Project, told the DCNF. Wheatley’s article “should be a red flag to policy makers and elected officials to end this tyranny of liberalism before it is formally levied against American Soldiers preferring to live in reality.”

Experts were not aware of any incidents where a branch of the armed services had attempted to use the UCMJ to punish a servicemember for refusing preferred pronouns.

Commanders do have a wide berth to discipline servicemembers in ways that do not involve a criminal trial but can still have serious implications for a servicemember’s career, possibly including separation from the military under less than honorable circumstances, Wheatley said. Such measures resolve more quickly, have a lower burden of proof than “are almost always shielded from public scrutiny.”

Instead of leaving it to chance, Congress could force the military to establish a servicemember’s “unqualified” right to use pronouns consistent with their religious convictions, a one-pager provided by Claremont suggested. The experts advocated stronger measures too, including decriminalizing unspecified MEO violations and to narrow its scope so that it only applies to activities a servicemember performs while on normal duty hours or contributing to an official military mission.

Congress should develop a public record of incidents in the military where religious freedom is seen to come under threat, the document stated.

Claremont suggested the military conduct regular training on the importance of religious freedom throughout the armed forces and study ways to strengthen protections on service members’ religious expression.

Wheatley also said service chiefs could consider demands for a service member to speak in violation of his or her religious convictions as harassment.

AUTHOR

MICAELA BURROW

Investigative reporter, defense.

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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.

Medical Associations Silent After Review Finds ‘Weak Evidence’ For Giving Puberty Blockers To Kids

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Major medical associations have remained silent after the results of a four-year review commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS) England undermined their recommendations for giving puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria

The Cass report, conducted by former Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health Dr. Hilary Cass and released April 10, found that there is “weak evidence” for offering puberty blockers to children. It concluded that its findings “raise questions about the quality of currently available guidelines” offered by associations like the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Endocrine Society, yet neither organization has committed to reviewing their guidelines.

The review references a letter recommending against treating children with puberty blockers outside of a research setting. It also urged “extreme caution” for providing cross-sex hormones to minors under 18 and stressed the need for a “clear clinical rationale.”

The review further suggested a “full programme of research be established” to “look at the characteristics, interventions and outcomes of every young person presenting to the NHS gender services.”

“Although a diagnosis of gender dysphoria has been seen as necessary for initiating medical treatment, it is not reliably predictive of whether that young person will have longstanding gender incongruence in the future, or whether medical intervention will be the best option for them,” the report noted.

The American Medical Association, WPATH, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and Endocrine Society did not respond to multiple inquiries over the past week from the Daily Caller News Foundation asking whether they had concerns with the report’s findings or intended to conduct their own review. Aside from WPATH,  these organizations have largely failed to even address the report publicly.

WPATH wrote in a statement that it “supports policies that increase access to high-quality ethical care for transgender youth,” claiming that the report’s foundation is rooted in a “false premise.”

The organization’s standards of care 8th version states that waiting several years to start a young adolescent on puberty blockers “is not always practical nor necessary given the premise of the treatment as a means to buy time while avoiding distress from irreversible pubertal changes,” though it acknowledges that establishing a “sustained experience of gender incongruence” can be important before starting.

“The foundation of the Cass report is rooted in the false premise that non-medical alternatives to care will result in less adolescent distress for most adolescents and is based on a lack of knowledge of and experience working with this patient population,” the organization said in a press release. “It is harmful to perpetuate this notion and does not acknowledge the very real fact that medical pathways are an important treatment option for many young people.”

The Endocrine Society characterizes puberty blockers as a “reversible pause to puberty” and “a first step in treatment to allow the adolescent to explore their gender identity and/or to provide relief from distress.” WPATH’s guidelines likewise recommend putting adolescents on “puberty suppressing hormones” to “alleviate gender dysphoria.”

WPATH physicians acknowledged puberty blockers can cause irreversible consequences in minors like infertility, bone loss and disruption of brain development in educational sessions from September 2022 previously obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Both the AMA and AACAP recommend WPATH’s guidance for handling gender dysphoria in children. The AMA often advocates against red state laws that ban sex-change procedures for minors, including puberty blockers.

The Cass report notes “there is no evidence that puberty blockers buy time to think, and some concern that they may change the trajectory of psychosexual and gender identity development.”

The Cass report also questioned WPATH and the Endocrine Society on the “circularity” of their citations, which make support for their positions appear stronger than they are.

Early versions of the two organization’s guidelines influenced “nearly all” guidelines set by other organizations, the report notes. The two organization’s guidelines are also “closely interlinked” because WPATH provided input on the Endocrine Society recommendations, according to the report.

“The circularity of this approach may explain why there has been an apparent consensus on key areas of practice despite the evidence being poor,” the report stated.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Chicago: Leftist Muslim teaches American leftists to scream ‘Death to America’ in Farsi

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.

Disney Board Wants To Hide Political Donations, Spending On Sex Changes From Shareholders, Docs Reveal

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The Walt Disney Company board wants to hide key financial data from the public, particularly as it relates to their funding of the transgender movement and donations to political candidates, documents reviewed by the Daily Caller reveal.

The 2024 proxy vote ballot for Disney’s annual shareholder meeting, scheduled for April 2, reveals the board doesn’t want the public, or even their own shareholders, to know how much Disney spends on “gender transition compensation and benefits” for its staff. Despite the board’s suggested vote to shareholders, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) and National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) are urging the company to release the data.

In Disney’s 2024 “Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders and Proxy Statement,” Disney details how the NLPC and NCPPR notified the company that they intend to present proposals focused on these issues. Within the same document, Disney “affirms” that people who suffer from gender dysphoria can “transition to a different sex.” However, “an increasing body of scientific evidence shows no benefits result from such medical treatments,” the NLPC argues. They go on to cite the European and American medical community’s “increasing” caution about gender-transition “therapies.”

“Victims report transition treatments and surgeries are harmful. Examples include long-lasting or permanent outcomes like chronic pain, sexual dysfunction, unwanted hair loss or hair gain, menstrual irregularities, urinary problems, and other complications,” the statement continues. “Rather than resolve health problems ‘gender affirming’ therapies instead often exacerbate them. In such instances, those who desire to ‘detransition’ cannot find medical care or insurance coverage, and are permanently mutilated. Many of these sufferers litigate against those who misled or harmed them.”

But as transitioners are de-transitioners are protected under “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” aspects of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), they cannot be discriminated against in any way, resulting in Disney covering transition procedures.

Shareholders have asked the board to issue a report on Disney’s funding of gender care and related activities by Dec. 31, 2024, and whether there are any “benefit gaps” related to gender dysphoria, as well as “associated reputational, competitive, operational and litigative risks.”

Similarly, Disney doesn’t want shareholders to approve the publication of the company’s charitable and political donations. The board recommends a vote against “requesting a report on political expenditures” and “publication of recipients of charitable contributions.”

In their recommendation, NCPPR argued that there are “issues” with donating to certain groups who support sex-change surgeries, not just for the potential legal and medical issues listed above, but because is it “time Disney stop injecting itself into controversial and significant social policy issues,” the proposal stated.

Disney’s board ignores all the arguments and scientific evidence laid out by the NCPPR and NLPC in their explanation for why they’re recommending voting “against” the proposals. “We believe the proposal is an attempt to generate attention from a proponent with a narrow focus seeking to advance a limited agenda rather than an authentic attempt to call for action in the best interest of the Company and shareholders,” Disney wrote in response to the proposals.

The board also ignored any mention of “gender” in their request for shareholders to reject the proposal to publicize Disney’s charitable donation, and instead stated the company is already transparent enough about their spending.

“In its opposition statement Disney revealed why our proposal is so important, and how badly it has failed to fulfill its fiduciary duties. Disney clearly hasn’t spent a single moment considering how much Iger and his team have harmed the company by going full-in on politics instead of running the company for shareholder and even genuine stakeholder benefit. Iger has hired people like Kathleen Kennedy who hate Disney’s customers and want to shove their politics down audiences’ throats rather than entertaining them,” NCPPR director Scott Shepard said in a statement to the Daily Caller. “Iger seems to think that by adopting a partisan position he makes it non-partisan and just ‘the right thing to do.’ He is wrong in this, of course, as he’s wrong in just about every decision he’s made for many years.”

Disney has found itself increasingly mired in political squabbles in recent years, most notably with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has gone after the megacorporation’s special tax status. Conservatives have accused Disney of shoehorning progressive messaging into its content and pursuing a political agenda over putting out quality family content.

Disney did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

KAY SMYTHE

News and commentary writer.

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

Red State Senate Kills Gov’s Veto On Bill Banning Child Sex Changes

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The Ohio Senate voted Wednesday to override Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill that would prohibit doctors from performing sex-change medical procedures on minors.

The state’s House of Representatives voted 65 to 28 on Jan. 10 to override the governor’s veto of the bill, which would bar doctors from performing transgender surgeries or prescribing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to minors. State senators voted 28 to 4, largely among party lines, to pass the legislation.

“The Governor does not have [a] new comment today. His previous comments on the bill and his veto reflect his position on the issue,” Dan Tierney, DeWine’s press secretary, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

DeWine signed an executive order earlier this month that banned transgender surgeries for minors, but allowed children to obtain cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers. DeWine argued that he never disagreed with his Republican colleagues on the issue, but that other procedures should be left up to parents and medical professionals.

The bill, which is set to go into effect in 90 days, will also prevent men who identify as transgender women from competing in women’s sports, a decision DeWine has publicly come out against in the past. DeWine also received $40,000 in donations between 2018 and 2023 from several state children’s hospitals, at least one of which he visited in December to discuss the bill with families, patients and medical professionals.

A training video from one of the hospitals, Cincinnati Children’s, revealed staff teaching doctors how to work around parental consent when treating a minor transgender patient. The hospital’s CEO, Steven Davis, claimed in his December testimony against the bill that the hospital always gets consent from the parents before performing transgender medical procedures on minors.

AUTHOR

KATE ANDERSON

Contributor.

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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.

‘War On Families’: Federal ‘Home Visiting’ Program Classifies Parents Who Don’t Let Young Kids Cross-Dress As Potentially Abusive

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A federally funded “home visiting” program advises service providers to watch for signs of abuse against “gender-diverse children,” citing parents who deny their young child the “right” to cross-dress as an example, a document shows.

The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program is intended to combat abuse and neglect while promoting “positive parenting” and school readiness among “pregnant people and families” with young children who are at-risk for “poor maternal and child health outcomes,” according to its website. The guidance offered to government workers who visit homes at the request of families categorizes steering a child away from “gender expression” that does not correspond with his or her biological sex as abuse.

One document titled “Parental Acceptance of Gender Expression in Young Children” tells home visitors it is important for them to “recognize and address the abuse and neglect that may result, either directly or indirectly, from rejection of a child’s gender expression.”

“Gender-diverse children are frequently the targets of violence or harm — by other children, caregivers, or family members,” the document states.

Abuse need not be “overt,” it explains, but can look like “denying a child the right to play, dress, and act as they would like.”

“Home visitors are uniquely positioned to support family acceptance of children’s gender expression,” the document instructs. “Home visiting, at its core, is dedicated to building strong parent-child bonds in all families. Acceptance of gender expression is key to forging and maintaining these bonds.”

The document further claims that accepting a child’s gender expression can “protect against depression, suicidal thoughts, and suicidal attempts.” However, studies have cast doubt on the idea that affirming a child’s gender identity leads to better mental health outcomes.

Doctors have also expressed concerns that statistics about transgender suicide rates are not only inflated, but that activists’ frequent focus on the numbers may actually drive children with gender identity issues to suicide by creating a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“It is insane to vilify parents simply for wanting their gender-confused children to feel comfortable in their own bodies,” American Principles Project president Terry Schilling told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “If anyone is guilty of abuse, it is the gender ideologues who feed kids the pernicious lie that they can somehow change their sex, setting them on a pathway to destructive body modifications.”

The program is run by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), which is part of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a subagency of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It awards grants to states that carry out approved “home visiting” programs for at-risk “pregnant people and families” with young children.

An HRSA spokesperson told the DCNF that programs report suspected child abuse “consistent with relevant federal, state and local laws, regulations and policies.”

“Home visitors support parents and caregivers by providing information and guidance on a wide range of topics intended to promote child well-being, including safe sleep practices, injury prevention, and nutrition,” the spokesperson said. “Home visitors also conduct screenings for caregivers and provide referrals to address postpartum depression, substance use, and family violence, and other risk factors associated with child maltreatment.”

The agency awarded $434,721,579 in 2023 to home visitors in 50 states and six territories in fiscal year 2023, according to its website. The program provided over 840,000 home visits in fiscal year 2022, according to a report.

The agency said resources like the “Parental Acceptance of Gender Expression in Young Children” document are “developed to provide background information, research and data, and strategies for program recipients to support improved health and development for all children served by MIECHV programs.”

Schilling said this is “just the latest chilling example of the Biden administration’s war on families.”

“We are rapidly headed down a road where every parent in this country who opposes the transgender agenda risks losing custody of their kids,” he told the DCNF. “The grave threat to families posed by this administration cannot be ignored. Pro-family Americans must fight it at every turn: in Congress and the state legislatures, in the courts, and most importantly, at the ballot box next year.”

A recent rule proposal by the Biden administration’s HHS would transfer children out of foster families that do not affirm their “gender identity,” excluding families with religious objections from their definition of a “safe and appropriate placement” for LGBT youth.

Under the rule, foster care agencies “must not place LGBTQI+ identifying children with a provider who unreasonably limits or denies a child’s ability to express their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”

“For example, to be considered a safe and appropriate placement, a provider is expected to utilize the child’s identified pronouns, chosen name, and allow the child to dress in an age-appropriate manner that the child believes reflects their self-identified gender identity and expression,” the rule continues.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

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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.

Planned Parenthood’s Trans Hormone Business Is Booming, Creating Thousands Of New Patients ‘For Life’

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The number of transgender services performed at Planned Parenthood clinics exploded over the past few years as the transgender medical industry became increasingly lucrative, according to data published by the organization’s regional branches.

Planned Parenthood first began providing hormone treatments for transgender patients in 2005, and since then 41 out of 49 regional branches have provided transgender services as of 2022. However, in just the last three years, Planned Parenthood has become dramatically more involved in the gender hormone industry.

Between 2020 and 2022, the number of transgender services performed and/or visits related to transgender treatments at Planned Parenthood clinics increased by roughly 125%, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of available data. Regional branches that made their data available collectively saw 17,036 visits in 2020 compared to 38,337 in 2022, a staggering increase in such a short period of time.

Michael Artigues, president of the American College of Pediatricians, told the DCNF that the increase seen over the last few years is likely due to a number of factors such as transgenderism becoming a growing “social phenomenon,” as well as potential financial incentives.

“You have to be concerned about the fact that there’s always money involved, for sure,” Artigues said. “And you’ve got to question whether or not they’re discerning if someone, in particular minors, have a legitimate condition that requires treatment like gender-affirming therapies, as opposed to a social phenomena and or simply mental health problems.”

While the national Planned Parenthood organization does not publicize data on visits related to transgender medical services, such as gender hormone therapy, 12 of the 41 regional Planned Parenthood branches have released relevant data over the past three years. The remaining branches did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

The regional offices varied in how they tracked gender services, with some tracking gender hormone therapy appointments and others tracking visits to their “gender-affirming care” programs; however, many of the regional Planned Parenthood organizations who published their data saw a substantial increase in visits and/or services performed for transgender individuals. Many clinics currently offer “Transgender Hormone Therapy” including estrogen, testosterone and puberty blockers.

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, which has clinics located in California and parts of Nevada, had 1,041 “gender-affirming care visits” in 2020 before jumping to 4,378 visits in 2022 and eventually hitting 9,288 in 2023, according to its annual reports. The clinic offers hormone therapy for patients who are 18 years and older, or for patients 16 to 17 years old who obtain parental consent, according to its website.

Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, located in Oregon, recorded 344 transgender medical visits in 2018-2019 and 533 in 2019-2020. That number of visits went up to 1,066 in 2020-2021, and the following year it was nearly four times higher at 4,129 visits.

Nationwide, Planned Parenthood saw over 35,000 patients for hormone replacement services appointments in 2021, NPR reported. The organization did not disclose the exact number of gender-related visits in its 2022 annual report but instead listed them under “other procedures,” which totaled 256,550 appointments and included services like “pediatric care … other adult preventive care, and high complexity visits, including infertility services.”

Click here to view the Planned Parenthood Transgender Healthcare Services annual totals for Gender Hormone Therapy Infographic.

Several branches said that their transgender services were some of the fastest-growing areas for their clinics. Planned Parenthood Illinois said in its 2022 report that its transgender hormone therapy is “growing faster than any other service.” The report also noted that “gender-affirming care requires a lifelong continuum of social, psychological, behavioral and medical care.”

Stella O’Malley, psychotherapist and executive director of Genspect, an international group that advocates for a “healthy approach to sex and gender,” told the DCNF that she believes Planned Parenthood has gone from the “medical model, where doctors are bound by the principle to ‘first, do no harm,’ to a more business-like approach that lets the buyer beware.”

“The problem with this is that very vulnerable people who are at their lowest often need guidance and support, not a business-like exchange,” O’Malley said. “Doctors aren’t shopkeepers. They are paid very well because they’re in positions of responsibility, and so they need to meet these responsibilities by being sensitive to the needs of the patient. A one-size-fits-all approach that fast-tracks most patients onto a medicalized pathway is profoundly inappropriate.”

Overall, the cross-sex surgery market is projected to be worth $5 billion in 2023, according to Grand View Research, thanks in large part to more and more Americans identifying as transgender. The cost of routine medical visits for a patient on gender hormones would also be significant.

Only a few of the affiliates reviewed by the DCNF list prices for their gender services; Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri lists a “self-pay fee for a visit” at $250, with additional costs added for any lab work, according to its website. All follow-up visits are $200, plus costs to cover lab work as needed.

Planned Parenthood Pasadena & San Gabriel Valley estimates costs of up to $262 for the first visit, as well as $35 for hormone injection training and up to $48 for lab work, according to its website. Any follow-up visits can cost up to $202.

As of 2022, Planned Parenthood Metropolitan New Jersey said that its new patient consultation for transgender hormones ranged anywhere from $92 to $206, while follow-ups were slightly lower, going from $65 to $173, according to a welcome packet.

Scott Newgent, a detransitioner and founder of TReVoices, an organization that works to stop the medical transitioning of children, told the DCNF that the nature of gender hormone treatments, which must be taken continuously for the remainder of a patient’s life, creates potential repeat customers for organizations like Planned Parenthood.

“It doesn’t matter if they decide to transition or stay trans or whatever,” Newgent said. “They’re going to need those synthetic hormones for life. That’s a huge business model.”

Doctors have also raised concerns over the ease with which one can get a prescription for hormone treatments at Planned Parenthood; the Columbia Willamette affiliate, for instance, says on its website that it provides hormone treatments for patients 18 years and older and does not require a letter from a counselor or doctor recommending hormones for gender dysphoria. Patients can get a prescription after the initial hour-and-a-half appointment.

Erica Anderson, who is transgender and the former president of the U.S. Professional Association for Transgender Health, said that patients have circumvented more traditional methods of getting hormones because it takes too long, opting to go to Planned Parenthood instead, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

Click here to view Planned Parenthood Trangender Healthcare Services Infographic.

The DCNF also reviewed an additional eight branches that released only partial data in their annual reports between 2020 and 2022. Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest recorded only 22 “gender-affirming” hormone therapy telehealth visits in 2020 but did not include any data regarding in-person health care center visits for hormone therapy in its annual report.

In 2021, the branch saw 829 telehealth and health care center visits for gender hormones, and in 2022 had 2,426, according to its annual reports.

Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri saw 238 visits between July 2020 and June 2021 as it rolled out its “transgender care program,” according to its annual report. Between July 2021 and June 2022, visits for hormone therapy jumped to 1,657.

Click here to view the Planned Parenthood Transgender Healthcare Services 2020 – 2022 Infographic

Planned Parenthood California Central Coast reported 299 “gender-affirming care” initial and follow-up visits for the fiscal year 2019-2020 but logged 746 only two years later in its annual report for 2021-2022. Planned Parenthood Wisconsin in 2020-2021 had 488 hormone therapy visits, but that number jumped to 730 in 2021-2022.

Planned Parenthood Great Northwest reported only 659 “gender-affirming hormone care” visits in 2018 within the first six months of opening its gender program. However, in 2022, the number increased to a staggering 12,814 visits among 5,926 patients. While the Great Northwest branch absorbed the Indiana and Kentucky regions in 2021, those organizations did not list the number of transgender services they provided in their previous annual reports.

There are serious health risks from transgender hormone treatments; minors can become infertile if they receive puberty blockers, while those who transition later could suffer from other conditions such as bone deterioration after trying to come off testosterone.

“Women that get on testosterone for a long period, and then get off of it, their bones deteriorate,” Newgent said. “So I have to get back on testosterone to have my bones safe, but then I have to deal with the other sides of it. So there’s all these medical complications that come with it.”

Planned Parenthood published a series of videos in July acknowledging that patients who take estrogen hormones are at a higher risk of blood clots in the lungs, brain and legs.

Risks for testosterone therapy include blood clots, low blood sugar, high cholesterol and liver issues, according to the videos. Planned Parenthood also suggests that patients receiving hormone therapy should look into “family planning” options, noting that infertility is a potential side effect.

Planned Parenthood should “prioritize evidence-based medicine” and encourage patients, specifically children, to get “intensive psychiatric assessment and care” instead of offering puberty blockers, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm, a group of medical professionals that oppose “radical” ideology in health care, said in a statement to the DCNF.

Planned Parenthood did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

AUTHORS

MEGAN BROCK AND KATE ANDERSON

Contributors.

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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.

SICK: Transgender Coach Strips in Front of Teen Girls in School Locker Room

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Jail for this pedo pervert. Look what the left did to education, culture, morality….

Transgender Coach Strips to Undies in Front of Teen Girls in School Locker Room

By: Todd Starnes, September 13, 2023:

The girls’ tennis coach at Gettysburg High School is a man who dresses like a woman.

Sasha Yates is at the center of a controversy after female students complained that the coach was undressing in their locker room and bathroom.

The Epoch Times reports “in the fall of 2022 Yates changed his clothes in the girls’ locker room — ‘stripping down to bra and panties’ — where the (girls) soccer team also was changing. Members of the team had reported ‘it was clear from what they saw that Mr. Yates was still fully a man.’”

There had also been concerns over conversations the coach had with some of the girls – talking about undergarment preferences and menstruation.

Parents complained and demanded the coach be removed.

Steve Carbaugh, a parent of a student in the school district told CBS News, “My daughter was in the bathroom across from the gymnasium in the senior high school, going to the restroom before one of her sporting events. While she exited the bathroom stall, she ran into Mr. David Yates in the female bathroom. Imagine that, a 16-year-old female running into a full grown adult in the restroom of her high school.”

But the coach had major support among members of the media as well as others who said the biological females were just homophobic.

Keep reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED ARTICLE: Gettysburg Area School Board pulls recommendation to rehire tennis coach

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Democrats Cut GOP Lawmaker’s Mic As He Cites Evidence Child Sex Changes Don’t Improve Mental Health

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The Democrat-controlled California State Assembly cut off the microphone of state assembly member James Gallagher during debate over a bill threatening the custody of parents who don’t “affirm” their kids.

The California legislature passed Friday AB 957, a bill requiring a judge to consider whether or not a parent “affirms” their child’s “gender identity” in a custody dispute. Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener and Democratic Assembly Member Lori Wilson introduced the bill in February.

“I wanna get this out there. It’s important that we know what the science and the information is saying. Even a recent follow up study in 2021 found that out of 139 participants, only 17 persisted in their gender identity, they were looking at young boys. One-hundred-twenty-two, 87%, went back to their biological sex. You can’t have a —”

Gallagher was told his microphone was cut off due to a “time limit on speeches.”

“This bill, for purposes of this provision, would include a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity or gender expression as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child,” AB 957 reads.

Assembly member Joe Patterson pointed out during debate that the legislation unnecessarily complicated family situations.

“In California judges are already using their discretion. They already can use it, I have seen it. They already can do this right now. And so I am concerned that this is the state telling the courts to give special emphasis on this because they can already do ti. So when I look at that and I look at what I went through growing up — a very complicated family situation — I believe this is going to add more complication.”

AUTHOR

SARAH WEAVER

Social issues reporter.

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

‘Mocking Women’: Glamour Magazine Blasted For ‘Pregnant Male’ Cover Model

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The popular fashion magazine Glamour UK is featuring a pregnant woman who identifies as male as a front cover model for its June 2023 edition.

“I’m a pregnant trans man and I do exist. No matter what anyone says, I am literally living proof,” the model, Logan Brown, said in an interview with the magazine.

The cover quickly drew backlash.

“Glamour magazine wants you to believe a man is pregnant….THIS IS A BIOLOGICAL WOMAN THAT IS PREGNANT!!! Men can’t get pregnant ONLY women can!!” radio host Graham Allen wrote on Twitter.

“To be fair, she’s no less attractive than other recent Glamour cover models. Apparently BLM requires that beauty be CANCELED,” political commentator Ann Coulter wrote.

Kaeley Triller, co-founder of the pro-life group Hands Across The Aisle, ridiculed the magazine for denigrating womanhood.

“When ‘trans men’ make the news, it’s usually because they’re doing something womanly, like having babies,” Triller wrote. “A woman chopped her hair off and got pregnant, and this is cover story material.”

“Shame on you @GlamourMagUK for mocking women and everything they have to go through during pregnancy!” wrote Oli London, an internet personality who frequently criticizes transgenderism.

Brown became pregnant by her “non-binary” drag queen male partner Bailey Mills, according to Glamour.

“I met Bailey nearly two years ago. We’ve not even been together that long, to be honest,” she said. “That’s why it’s a big shocker that we’re even having a baby together.”

Brown says that when she found out she was pregnant, “all my manlihood that I’ve worked hard for, for so long, just completely felt like it was erased.”

“I had to get to the point of being confident with who I am and being a pregnant man,” Brown added. “I’ve started educating people on it.”

AUTHOR

SARAH WEAVER

Social issues reporter.

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Pennsylvania Lawmakers Look To Investigate Gender Clinic’s Use Of Taxpayer Dollars On Trans Training

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  • The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services gave the Gender and Sexuality Development Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) nearly $177,000 through three years to host workshops for mental health providers on how to “affirm” transgender and gender expansive clients. 
  • Several Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers are criticizing taxpayer dollars being spent on the gender clinic and are planning to discuss the use of the funds with the state Appropriations Committee, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
  • “It’s so outrageous and it’s just another smack in the face for taxpayers to know that they were footing the bill for some of this,” Republican state Rep. Dawn Keefer told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers are calling out a gender clinic that used thousands of taxpayer dollars to train mental health providers on how to “affirm” transgender and gender expansive clients.

Over three years, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) granted the Gender and Sexuality Development Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) more than $176,000 to create a series of webinars and in-person trainings for mental health providers called the “Transgender Therapy Training Workshops,” the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed. Diverting taxpayer dollars towards the gender clinic and its transgender trainings for mental health providers is “outrageous” and must be investigated, Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers told the DCNF.

“I’m going to look into this personally and to talk to our appropriations chair,” Republican state Rep. Dawn Keefer told the DCNF. “I’m not on the Appropriations Committee, so I didn’t participate in any of the hearings for appropriations, but this absolutely has to be discussed as we’re appropriating dollars, again, for human services and an agency, who always comes to us for more money. They’re looking for money for services that they are required to cover. It’s just irresponsible that they’re digressing into everything outside of their scope.”

The seminars included in the “Transgender Therapy Training Workshops” teach mental health providers that children learn their gender identity after having “access to more resources and can use new language to describe their gender.” Someone’s transgender status is “confidential” and should not be disclosed unless the individual gives permission to do so, according to the CHOP trainings.

CHOP’s gender clinic provides medical transitioning interventions to children, prescribing puberty blockers to kids as young as eight. The  clinic has referred kids as young as 14-years-old for cross-sex surgeries such as mastectomies or breast construction.

The gender clinic’s employees have promoted such procedures, in addition to hormones and puberty blockers for children.

“[Republican state] Senator [Scott] Martin is adamantly opposed to the use of taxpayer dollars to support extremist gender identity policies for children – something he has been fighting in the General Assembly for quite some time,” Jason Thompson, Martin’s spokesman, told the DCNF. “Even though the grants in question are fully funded by the federal government, the state should not play a role in supporting a program that encourages kids to move forward with life-altering decisions like gender reassignment surgery when they are too young to make that kind of choice.”

In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, CHOP was awarded $45,283 through the state’s “Community Mental Health Services Block Grant” for the workshops, which in total trained 821 mental health providers.

In the second year of the program, the state gave CHOP $51,966 to hold the workshops and to pay the partial salaries for two of the gender clinic employees. Through the 2019-2020 fiscal year, CHOP suggested to DHS that the workshops focus on several topics including “legal transition, medical transition, working with couples, working with schools, individuals in addiction and co-occurring Autism.”

In the 2020-2021 fiscal year, CHOP was granted $79,446 which resulted in 520 mental health providers being trained.

“It’s so outrageous and it’s just another smack in the face for taxpayers to know that they were footing the bill for some of this,” Keefer told the DCNF.

CHOP has provided at least 33 trainings in 15 schools since 2017; CHOP provided a training to Southern Lehigh School District in 2021 which advised educators to allow students “room for exploration” of their gender. In 2022, a Pennsylvania school district donated $1,200 to CHOP to provide professional development sessions which taught K-12 educators how to create “gender inclusive and affirming educational environments.”

“I can speak from my district and my feelings for the state in these issues, taxpayers do not want to fund this type of, as they term it, health care,” Republican state Rep. Barbra Gleim told the DCNF. “I will also be opposing any type of appropriations to this type of mental health care. We just need to make [the taxpayer] aware that their tax dollars are going towards gender reaffirmation or gender transitioning, and if that’s not okay with them, they need to let everybody know, so that we can legislate properly.”

Pennsylvania Department of Human Services and Gender and Sexuality Development Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

REAGAN REESE

Contributor.

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