Biden admin. clarifies stance on trans surgeries for kids following backlash from LGBT groups
The Biden administration has again clarified its position on trans surgeries for youth exhibiting confusion about their sex following pushback from activist groups after the administration said it opposed genital mutilation for minors in response to reports that some health officials and a trans activist group were pushing to remove age restrictions on said procedures.
Federal officials told The New York Times late last month that the Biden administration opposed trans surgeries for minors but did not clarify whether they also oppose other aspects of body-deforming gender medicalization of children, including prescribing puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones. The officials reportedly did not clarify the administration's position "regarding the scientific research or on [HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel (formerly Richard)] Levine's role in having the age minimums removed."
In a separate report in June, the NY Times shared email excerpts from the activist group known as the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) recounting exchanges with HHS staff.
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Levine is a man who identifies as a woman, and the excerpts cited by the NY Times showed that the Biden HHS official was in favor of removing age limits on body-mutilating trans surgeries for minors.
In an email obtained by The Advocate this month, Neera Tanden, the director for Biden's Domestic Policy Council, told the LGBT activist group Human Rights Campaign that the administration’s policies regarding trans-identifying people have not changed. The LGBT group led a coalition letter over the weekend demanding that the Biden administration reaffirm its support for trans surgeries for minors.
“We continue to fight state and national bans on gender-affirming care, which represents a continuum of care, and respect the role of parents, families, and doctors — not politicians — in these decisions. Gender-affirming surgeries are typically reserved for adults, and we believe they should be,” Tanden stated.
“Above all, families should have the freedom to make the medical decisions that they and their doctors determine are best for them — which is why we oppose attempts to limit healthcare for transgender individuals in the courts or through legislation,” she added.
The Biden official added that the administration will continue to oppose attempts to ban or restrict body-mutilating surgeries for trans-identifying individuals in the courts and at the legislative level.
Brandon Showalter, an opinion writer and social commentator for The Christian Post, asserted that the Biden administration’s statements regarding its position on so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors were nothing more than a “PR clean-up move” following reports of Levine’s opposition to age restrictions.
“The ugly truth is that, according to medical journals, girls as young as 13 have had their healthy breasts amputated in this country, and boys as young as 15 have had their genitals disfigured in pursuit of becoming the opposite sex,” which is an impossibility, Showalter said. “Claiming such brutal and medically unnecessary surgical operations to be ‘rare’ or the purview of family decision-making is not only a cop-out, but it legitimizes horrendous atrocities that will soon be seen as one of the worst medical scandals in history.”
“Their backpedaling also reveals, yet again, the ideological capture and the near-total political grip that LGBT activists have on the national Democratic Party and how they have refused to listen to the concerns of radical feminists and other left-wing dissenters from within their ranks,” he concluded.
In a statement published June 28 by the NY Times, an HHS spokesperson defended the reports about Levine, saying that the official had expressed an opinion to his staff that age limits for trans surgeries are “not supported by science or research.” The spokesperson also said that Levine believed that age limits could lead to “attacks on the transgender community.”
Discussions about the Biden administration’s position on trans surgeries and other life-altering procedures for gender dysphoric youth come as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to decide on the constitutionality of a Tennessee law prohibiting body-mutilating sex-change surgeries, puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones for children. The case will be the first time the nation’s highest court has ruled on the constitutionality of such laws.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
