Author, columnist, speaker

The Tide Has Turned Against Transgender Insanity

By Robert Knight

First, let’s be clear: People confused about their sexual identity merit our compassion.

They’re created in the image of God and each life is precious. And they deal with a lot of pain.

But the last thing that sexually dysphoric people need is “gender affirming care” and other euphemistic medical interventions by doctors who stand to profit handsomely from their misery – for years.

When you mess with nature, you invite lifelong dependency on drugs, hormone shots, psychiatric care, and sometimes additional surgeries. This is the part the media leave out.

Europe is ahead of America in turning away from these barbaric practices. The United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and France have put the brakes on such programs.

Last year, Britain’s National Health Service released a four-year study headed by pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, that said, “The rationale for early puberty suppression remains unclear, with weak evidence regarding the impact on gender dysphoria, mental or psychosocial health.”

In June, the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Skrmetti upheld Tennessee’s law banning such medical malpractice on kids. The court didn’t state the obvious: that it is physically impossible to change a boy into a girl.

The 6-3 majority—minus the three Democrat justices—decided only the constitutional question before them of whether the state had the authority to enact and enforce such a law. The state prevailed and the transgender racketeers lost.

It’s a little like Al Capone finally being nabbed for tax evasion instead of his long, gory record of mob hits, but it puts the quacks out of business, at least in the Volunteer State.

As with abortion, the high court has so far ducked the central moral issue and decided to let the states deal with gender transition treatments.

But there’s a slow train coming around the bend. People are waking up to the notion that they no longer have to accept woke madness.

Citing President Donald Trump’s executive order, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” the administration is warning hospitals that it may cut off federal funding if they continue sexual experiments on children and teenagers.

What a difference an election makes.

In late June, a 30-day deadline passed for nine children’s hospitals to respond to letters from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz demanding data on cross-sex hormone therapy, puberty blockers and sex-reassignment surgeries.

In response, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles said it is closing its minor transitioning program.

“President Trump has been clear: America will protect kids from life-altering and experimental procedures,” Oz said. “CMS has warned hospitals and state Medicaid programs about these dangers—and is taking regulatory enforcement actions.”

Some regretful “transitioners” who have rethought their initial mistake are filing malpractice lawsuits.

This is long overdue. If a doctor cut off a healthy arm or leg because a child identified as an amputee, would that be okay?

The Justice Department and state and local authorities need to start arresting and prosecuting the so-called medical personnel who are doing the experiments. Laws on the books against harming others should suffice, especially statutes prohibiting child abuse.

Is this a stretch, making such medical interventions actionable? I don’t think so, especially when it comes to kids.

So far, 27 Republican-led states have enacted laws banning gender treatments on minors and barring males from competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams and accessing their bathrooms and locker rooms.

Some doctors and parents tragically believe the propaganda that if a minor does not get “gender affirming” treatments they may lose them.

Activists slyly ask, “Do you want a live son or a dead daughter?” and vice versa.

Telling a mom or dad that their beloved child may commit suicide if they don’t “transition” is emotional blackmail at its worst.

Recent research bears out that gender transitioning not only fails to provide benefits but more often leads to despondency and a heightened—not lessened—risk of suicide.

A peer-reviewed study released in April 2024 in the journal Cureus, “Risk of Suicide and Self-Harm Following Gender-Affirmation Surgery,” found that “patients who have undergone gender affirmation surgery are associated with significantly higher risks of suicide, self-harm, and PTSD compared to general population control groups.”

The authors, who were immediately assailed by critics, conclude that post-surgical patients need more psychiatric care.

I have heard from self-avowed transgenders that they’re perfectly adjusted to living as the opposite sex and suffer harm only from lack of acceptance from “haters” like me.

It’s the same argument that LGBTQ activists have used for years: Any pain, STDs or complications that are over-represented among us are your fault for not going along with our demands.

It’s worked well. No one wants to be thought of as a bigot, especially when you’re not.

Sexual politics aside, we’re all no different in one respect—all of us are sinners in need of a savior. All of us should try to be more compassionate.

Jesus, however, famously warned in Matthew 18:6 about those who harm children: “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

There’s a consensus in this country that adults should be able to make their own decisions about most things.

But there’s also a powerful, growing feeling that was expressed years ago by the rock band Pink Floyd: “Leave those kids alone.”  

Illustration by Alexander Hunter / The Washington Times.