On Wednesday, a California legislative committee approved legislation to promote “gender affirming” care for minors, such as double mastectomies and puberty blockers. It disregarded pleas from witnesses saying that there are insufficient safeguards to protect children against irreversible procedures such as sex changes and mastectomies. The Epoch Times reports:
A 17-year-old girl who regrets having both of her breasts removed as a result of so-called “gender-affirming care” testified before a California Assembly committee hearing June 28, urging state lawmakers to reject proposed legislation that would make California a transgender sanctuary state.
“I was medically transitioned from ages 13 and 16,” Chloe Cole from the Central Valley told the public safety committee, saying she suffered irreversible consequences from surgeries and hormone treatment.
The committee passed the controversial Senate Bill (SB) 107, which proponents say would “provide refuge” for trans youth, their parents, and those who advocate for and provide “gender-affirming health care ” for minors.
The bill would prohibit law enforcement agencies from arresting or extraditing parents charged in other states or nations for child abuse or other crimes related to allowing minor children to receive these medical treatments.
Cole said when she was younger, her parents took her to a therapist who “affirmed my male identity” and “brushed off” concerns about the efficacy of hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries.
“My parents were given the threat of suicide as a reason to move me forward in my transition,” she said.
Cole said at age 15, she told her therapist she wanted to remove her breasts. She attended a top surgery class with a dozen other girls her age or younger.
“None of us were going to be men, we were fleeing from the uncomfortable feeling of becoming women,” Cole said.
She went through with the surgery and her endocrinologist put her on puberty blockers and injectable testosterone after two or three appointments, she said.
“Despite having a therapist and attending the top surgery class, I really didn’t understand all the ramifications of any of the medical decisions I was making. I was incapable of understanding, and it was downplayed consistently,” she said. “My parents, on the other hand, were pressured to continue my so-called ‘gender journey’ with the suicide threat.
“I will never be able to breastfeed a child. I have blood clots in my urine. I am unable to fully empty my bladder. I do not yet know if I am capable of carrying a child to full term. In fact, even the doctors who put me on puberty blockers and testosterone do not know.”
She urged the committee to reject the trans sanctuary state bill and put safeguards in place so that “painful” experiences like hers are not repeated.
“Children cannot consent,” she said.
Erin Friday, an attorney, argued against the bill, claiming it unconstitutional for California to disrespect the laws of other states.
She argued SB 107 would not just provide sanctuary for parents fleeing the law in other states, but would make California a refuge for all children who want to access transgender medicine and surgery.
“No questions asked. No real mental health assessment, no minimal diagnosis and no parental consent. So long as the minor child can get to California, she can order up any type of irreversible treatment,” she said.
Friday, a parent of a teen who once suffered from what’s called Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, but no longer identifies as trans, has previously testified that SB 107 would be a big mistake that would only worsen the “largest medical scandal in history,” and spread transgender ideology, which she described as a “social contagion.”
More at this link: https://www.theepochtimes.com/teen-who-had-double-mastectomy-regrets-gender-journey_4565312.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge
As the New York Post notes, “Chloe is one of a growing cohort called ‘detransitioners’ — those who seek to reverse a gender transition, often after realizing they actually do identify with their biological sex. Tragically, many will struggle for the rest of their lives with the irreversible medical consequences of a decision they made as minors.”
The number of girls temporarily identifying as “transgender” has skyrocketed. Dr. Lisa Littman, a former professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University, coined the term “rapid onset gender dysphoria” to describe this subset of transgender youth, typically biological females who become suddenly dysphoric during or shortly after puberty. Littman believes this may be due to adolescent girls’ susceptibility to peer influence on social media.
A variety of studies suggest that as many as 80% of dysphoric children could ultimately experience “desistance”— or coming to terms with their biological gender without resorting to transition. Which is why many professionals like Evans think it’s wise to hold off on potentially irreversible medical intervention for as long as possible….All these treatments run the risk of side effects that critics argue are too serious for children to fully understand. In the short term, puberty blockers can stunt growth and effect bone density, while the long-term effects are still unknown since they were only approved by the FDA in 1993. Side effects of testosterone include high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, blood clots and even infertility.
Being “gender affirming” shouldn’t be an excuse for a doctor to commit medical malpractice. But that may be happening in many cases.
The National Review provided a possible example. Doctors affirmed a man’s false belief that he had a female gender identity, and then mutilated his body by giving him a sex change he came to regret.
Plagued by self-hatred, he “heard about transgenderism” in college, and “seized on it as the solution.” A gender-affirming free clinic “immediately affirmed” his female gender identity. He was then given an “incomplete informed consent document to sign.” Later, his doctor told him that he “should really get surgery.” He was given an orchiectomy, but not told that it was castration. After being castrated, he “developed a drug habit” and began “ejaculating blood.” He said that “the gender clinic kept telling me, ‘Oh, it gets better.’” But it didn’t.
He says he was never given an independent psychological evaluation before getting surgery. After surgery, a different therapist diagnosed him with a different condition than gender dysphoria. But by then, he had already been castrated.
Getting a sex change caused havoc in the lives of thousands of people. The National Review gave an example of a woman who transitioned to being a man, and ended up with negative health consequences, “no hair,” and a “body mutilated.”
It’s not just doctors and psychologists who have made mistakes in their zeal to be “gender affirming.” So have judges.
Jamie Shupe gave an example in “I was America’s first ‘nonbinary person.’ It was all a sham.” Shupe is male, as he noted in the Daily Signal. But he wanted in vain to be a woman, due to a condition known as “autogynephilia.” When his therapist expressed skepticism about whether he would actually benefit from trying to change his sex, he filed a “formal complaint” against her, and found a new therapist, who affirmed his new “identity as a woman.” But eventually he changed his mind and declared he was nonbinary, not female:
When the fantasy of being a woman came to an end, I asked two of my doctors to allow me to become nonbinary instead of female to bail me out. Both readily agreed….To escape the delusion of having become a woman, I did something completely unprecedented in American history. In 2016, I convinced an Oregon judge to declare my sex to be nonbinary—neither male nor female.
As a result of this ruling, a “nonbinary option” now exists in many states, even though Shupe’s “sex change to nonbinary was a medical and scientific fraud.” The judge’s ruling was not based on any evidence. As Shupe observes, “the judge didn’t ask me a single question. Nor did” the judge ask “to see any medical evidence….Within minutes, the judge just signed off on the court order,” even though he did “not have any disorders of sexual development.” But three years later, “unable to advance the fraud for another single day,” he “reclaimed” his “male birth sex.”
