I am a
mother whose daughter has identified as transgender since the age of 14. I love
her, and I care deeply about her and other kids who identify as transgender.
There are
young people, like my daughter, who are in turmoil, and who are not getting the
compassionate care that they need and deserve.
I’m going to
explain to you what happens when parents seek out expert advice to help their
transgender-identifying children explore their feelings and discomfort with
their sex.
The current
standard of treatment promoted by medical and psychological associations is
called “affirmative care.” While this sounds nice, affirmative care leads
directly to putting children on the path to medical transition with little
chance of turning back.
Let me explain to you how this works.
If you take
your child to a clinic to seek help, affirmative care means the therapist must
follow the child’s lead. The professionals must accept a child’s professed gender
identity. In fact, this is the law in many states.
Under “conversion therapy” bans, questioning a child’s professed gender identity is now illegal.
So, if a
little boy is 5 years old and believes he is the opposite sex, affirmative care
means going along with his beliefs.
Parents are
encouraged to refer to him as their “daughter” and let him choose a feminine
name. Teachers are told to let him use the girls’ bathroom at school.
Therapists will reassure parents that social transition is harmless and
reversible.
Is it really harmless to tell a child who still believes in the tooth fairy that he is the opposite sex? Isn’t it quite likely that this child is just confused?
If a 10-year-old girl is uncomfortable with her developing body and suddenly insists she is a boy, affirmative care means blocking this girl’s puberty with powerful drugs.
Is it really harmless to tell a child who still believes in the tooth fairy that he is the opposite sex? Isn’t it quite likely that this child is just confused?
Doctors will
tell parents this is a perfectly safe and reversible way for her to explore her
gender. Affirmative care does not help this child get to the cause of her
discomfort.
Medicating
her with these drugs is not safe. In fact, her future fertility, sexual
functioning, and bone development may be negatively impacted.
Once the
teenage years begin, affirmative care means giving young people cross-sex
hormones. Girls as young as 12 are prescribed testosterone for lifetime usage,
while boys are given estrogen.
These are
serious hormonal treatments that impact brain development, cardiovascular
health, and may increase the risk of cancer.
There are no
long-term studies to prove this is necessary, safe, or prudent—but there are
many known hazards to using these same hormones when medically treating adults.
What does affirmative
care look like?
For girls,
one standard procedure is called “gender-affirming top surgery,” also known as
a double mastectomy. They are performed on girls as young as 13 years old—otherwise
healthy girls who believe they are transgender.
Jazz
Jennings is an example of affirmative care. His life has been documented in the
TV drama “I Am Jazz.”
Jazz was
born a boy, but raised as a girl since the age of 5. He was treated hormonally
since age 11. Last year, at the age of 17, Jazz had surgery to remove his penis
and create a simulated vagina out of his stomach lining.
After
surgery, Jazz’s wounds began separating and a blood blister began to form. An
emergency surgery was performed.
According to
Jazz’s doctor: “As I was getting her on the bed, I heard something go pop.
When I looked, the whole thing had split open.”
This is a
medical experiment on a child that has been playing out on television for the
past 12 years. No one knows what might happen next.
There are also
teenage girls undergoing radical hysterectomies in the name of gender identity.
It’s not acceptable for doctors to remove healthy limbs from children, so why is it acceptable for doctors to remove healthy reproductive organs from children?
It’s not acceptable for doctors to remove healthy limbs from children, so why is it acceptable for doctors to remove healthy reproductive organs from children?
I’m writing
not just because I care about children who identify as transgender, but because
I also care about their parents and other family members.
Parents are
doing everything they can to help their kids lead healthy, happy, and
fulfilling lives. Yet when parents seek out experts for help, they receive a
one-size-fits-all narrative that has no basis in science, common sense, or
compassion.
The “experts” tell parents that it is harmful to question their children’s beliefs, that they must support their children’s medical transition, which includes a lifetime dependence on hormones, and that if parents do not comply, their children will be at higher risk of suicide.
These parents are being lied to as their children are harmed and their families are torn apart.
Why not help
children learn to love the bodies in which they were born? Isn’t that what the
body-positivity movement is all about?
Transgender-identifying
children need our compassion, and they need our help. They need responsible
adults to gently question their beliefs, not blindly affirm them.
They need
proper therapy and guidance, not drugs and surgeries. And the medical practices
that are abusing them need to be shut down.
These parents are being lied to as their children are harmed and their families are torn apart.
Please speak
out for these children.
I am speaking out because I love my daughter. And it is because of her that I know what I have told you is true. She has been
a victim of “gender affirming” medical procedures, and I was powerless to stop
doctors from harming her.
Someday, I
hope she will realize that I’m advocating for her health, and for her future.
She has incredible courage, strength, and tenacity, as do many
transgender-identifying youth.
We, as
parents of these young people, advocate for our children because we love them.
Many of us are going through unimaginable grief because we love them.
We are
standing together, and we will never back down, because we love them. We
parents have formed our own support groups and a new coalition—the Kelsey Coalition—to help spread
this message and change the systems that failed our children.
Will you please stand with us?
This article has been adapted from a speech Elaine delivered at The Heritage Foundation.
Source material can be found at this site.
