Even as more medical experts are finding the courage to speak out against the horrors of so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors, backed up by a mounting pile of evidence, liberal lawmakers and left-wing ideologues are doubling down on their campaign of fear and repression.
In the latest shocking attempt to force transgender ideology on the public, California Governor Gavin Newsom on July 15 signed into law AB1955, which bans school districts from requiring parental notification if a child identifies as transgender. While many school districts throughout the country already have explicit policies to keep this vital information secret from parents, the new California bill effectively mandates that all schools in the state view parents as hostile to their own children’s well-being.
The bill was so egregious, in fact, that Elon Musk called it “the final straw,” announcing, “Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.”
“The goal of this diabolical law is to break the parent-child relationship and put the state in charge of your children,” Musk added in a later post.
The new California law notably comes in the wake of the Cass Review, an independent study of transgender treatments for minors that was published in April. The four-year-long study, which was commissioned by England’s National Health Service, found “no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”
Dr. Hillary Cass, the study’s principal author, concluded specifically that there is “remarkably weak evidence” to support the use of puberty blockers or hormone treatments for gender-confused children.
This study also comes following actions by other European countries, including Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, and Italy, to impose more restrictions on prescribing transgender medicine to minors.
Nonetheless, the Biden administration has continued to use federal rulemaking authority to force schools and even doctors to abide by the edicts of transgender ideology. According to one rule adopted by Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services in April, it is considered an act of unlawful discrimination for a doctor to refuse to provide “gender-affirming care” – even if providing the requested drugs or procedures would violate a doctor’s personal religious or spiritual beliefs.
During a congressional hearing in May, when pressed on whether medical institutions that refuse to provide cross-sex hormones and transgender surgeries would lose federal funding, Biden HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra responded, that if they are “not providing the service they’re required to, they are not entitled to the resources.”
In response to this rule, seven Republican-led states and the American College of Pediatricians (ACP) filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, calling the mandate radical and illegal. Dr. Jill Simmons, executive director of ACP, said that “the Biden administration’s rule forces [doctors] to violate this oath and perform procedures that are harmful and dangerous to our patients—vulnerable children.”
The escalating battle over transgender ideology, particularly when it comes to children, reflects just how prevalent the phenomenon has become in contemporary America. 1.9 percent of Gen-Z, those born between 1997 and 2004, now identify as transgender – a nearly twofold increase from the one percent of Millennials who say they are transgender. Among Generation X—those born between 1965 and 1980—and Baby Boomers—born between 1946 and 1964—this number plunges to 0.3 and 0.2 percent, respectively.
The Williams Institute, a UCLA Law School think tank focusing on gender issues, further estimated in 2021 that at least 300,000 Americans aged 13-17 identified as transgender.
While leftist transgender ideologues often insist that only a very small number of transgender-identifying minors receive hormone blockers or surgery, data shows that those numbers are increasing exponentially. According to a 2023 study published in the JAMA Network, owned by the American Medical Association, between 2016 and 2020, nearly eight percent of the 48,019 individuals who underwent transgender surgeries were between the ages of 12 and 18. That translates to thousands of confused young people having healthy body parts permanently removed or altered by a surgeon’s knife in the name of “affirmation.”
The figures for youth being prescribed cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers are even more stark. Between 2017 and 2021, at least 17,600 children aged 6-17 began taking permanently life-altering drugs following a gender dysphoria diagnosis – a figure that is likely a large under-estimate given that many 17-year-olds are grouped in with adult patients.
Even as the number of children undergoing these experimental and potentially harmful drug regimens and surgeries continues to increase, Americans are becoming more wary of the claims made by transgender activists. In a June Gallup survey, 51 percent of respondents said changing one’s gender at any time is morally wrong. A Washington Post-KFF poll last May also found that 68 percent of Americans oppose access to puberty-blocking drugs for children ages 10-14, while 58 percent oppose access to hormone therapies for kids ages 15 to 17.
Nonetheless, even with public support on their side, many doctors and medical experts continue to fear blowback from the left for opposing transgender ideology. Twelve retired and current officials and specialists from four countries whom I reached out to for this piece declined to speak to me for fear of retribution. One former government advisor said she was afraid of “widespread cancel culture.”
However, there are promising signs this dynamic may be changing, thanks in large part to publications like the Cass Review and movements like the Doctors Protecting Children Declaration, which has provided a rallying point for medical professionals to express “serious concerns about the physical and mental health effects of the current protocols promoted for the care of children and adolescents in the United States who express discomfort with their biological sex.” In total, nearly 5,000 individuals have signed the declaration, cutting through the culture of fear and censorship created by transgender activists.
The upcoming election could be another major turning point in this saga, as former President Donald Trump has promised to reverse Biden’s actions on the issue and end hormone therapies and gender surgeries for minors, calling the practices “child abuse” and “child sexual mutilation.”
With both sides entrenched in opposing views, a great battle for the hearts and minds of the public is underway – with the health and well-being of the next generation at stake.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
