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<\/a><\/p>\nAs a Canadian father fights<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>to stop court-ordered testosterone treatments for his 14-year-old daughter, U.S. experts warn there\u2019s an increasing danger that more and more American parents will find themselves in a similar heartrending predicament.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYes, it is really that bad,\u201d Michelle Cretella, president of the American College of Pediatrics, told LifeSiteNews.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cParents are losing their right to protect their children from this dangerous medical experiment, and extended family members fare no better,\u201d she told LifeSiteNews.<\/span><\/p>\n The general rule that individuals under age 18 cannot consent to medical treatment is being tossed out the window when it comes to sex transitioning, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n Children are started on puberty-blockers as young as nine, and \u201cunder the \u2018guidance\u2019 of gender \u2018experts\u2019 … girls have been allowed to consent to double mastectomies as young as age 13,\u201d said Cretella.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere are gender surgeons pushing to eliminate age restrictions on the removal of reproductive organs and genital surgeries.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s echoed by Emilie Kao, director of Heritage Foundation\u2019s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe number of pediatric gender clinics in the U.S. has grown exponentially from one clinic in 2007 to 45 clinics around the country,\u201d she told LifeSiteNews.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTransgender activists and trans-affirming doctors are rushing children into hormonal treatments at as young as 11 years old,\u201d Kao said, \u201ceven though the best statistics show that 80\u201395 percent of gender-dysphoric children become comfortable with their own bodies after passing through puberty without interventions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Moreover, the transgender lobby is waging a successful three-wave campaign for government-coerced transition of minor children, with \u201cremoval of a child based on accusations of medical neglect,\u201d Cretella told the Federalist\u2019s<\/strong><\/span><\/a> Margot Cleveland in February.<\/span><\/p>\n The first wave involved intervention during family court custody disputes; the second involves \u201cemergency room staff, therapists, or doctors\u201d reporting parents \u201cwho refuse to affirm their child\u2019s false gender\u201d to Child Protection Services; and the third wave, soon coming, will involve\u00a0schools launching investigations of parents who oppose a child\u2019s transition.<\/span><\/p>\n The gender activists are also enlisting the aid of workers in multiple levels of government.<\/span><\/p>\n At a recent United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH) conference, a panel cited \u201ctraining\u201d Department of Human Services workers \u201cin Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey\u201d to tell parents who oppose transitioning \u201cyou\u2019re creating an unsafe environment for your child,\u201d wrote Cleveland.<\/span><\/p>\n Parents are often told that unless the child\u2019s gender choice is affirmed, the child at an increased risk for suicide, a strategy documented by 4thwavenow.com<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, a \u201ccommunity of parents & others concerned about the medicalization of gender-atypical youth and rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBalking parents must be \u2018educated<\/strong><\/span>\u2019<\/a>, cajoled into going against their deepest protective instincts. If this indoctrination process doesn\u2019t work, there\u2019s the frequent threat your kid will kill themselves<\/strong><\/span><\/a> because of your hesitations,\u201d notes one post<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis weaponization of adult self-harm statistics is wielded by activists, clinicians, and the media alike, to terrorize parents into handing their offspring off to be drugged, sterilized, and (increasingly) surgically \u2018corrected\u2019 by therapists and doctors who are confident they know best when it comes to other people\u2019s children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In a highly publicized case last February, an Ohio Christian couple lost custody of their 17-year-old daughter to her maternal grandparents after they opposed her testosterone injections.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAround the country, similar cases are arising in the courts,\u201d Kao said.<\/span><\/p>\n The \u201cgeneral trend is to support affirmation of gender identity in all affected children,\u201d agrees pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Paul Hruz, adding that the process \u201cstarts with social affirmation which is increasingly being mandated by law.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But whether this is \u201cbest practice\u201d remains \u201ccontentious,\u201d he told LifeSiteNews.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSeveral medical societies have adopted guidelines that support transition for all children who have \u2018consistence, insistence, and persistence\u2019 of a gender identity that is discordant with biological sex,\u201d said Hruz, an associate professor of pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is in contrast to earlier recommendations that cautioned against transition in young children due to the high incidence of spontaneous realignment of gender identity with sex,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n And the change \u201chas been made without any strong scientific data against the prior cautious approach,\u201d Hruz told LifeSiteNews.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn general, the medical recommendations are based upon low quality evidence that does not even come close to the level of evidence that is generally expected when making strong recommendations for a novel treatment approach,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere is so much that we do not yet know about the long-term consequences. The existing evidence is concerning that harm is being done to these children without clear long-term benefit in preventing suicide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Moreover, as well subjecting children to what are essentially experimental medical treatments, this approach often leaves ignored and untreated underlying psychological and emotional trauma that may have triggered the child\u2019s gender dysphoria in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n Cretella told the Federalist\u2019s Cleveland that of seven families \u201cin as many different states\u201d who contacted her during custody battles in 2017, six involved \u201ca 15 year-old girl who never had any sexual identity confusion prior to her parent\u2019s [sic] divorce.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In all cases \u201cthe guardian ad litem<\/em>\u00a0and judges removed the right to medical consent and\/or custody from the parent who objected to transition with puberty blockers and hormones,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt is documented that teens who present with GD have high rates of preceding and concurrent psychopathology,\u201d Cretella told LifeSiteNews.\u00a0She noted that an April 2015 study<\/strong><\/span><\/a> out of Finland confirmed that “severe psychopathology” and “autism” were all overrepresented among one pediatric gender identity clinic population.<\/span><\/p>\nParents losing right to oppose \u201ctransition\u201d treatments<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Evidence lacking on consequences of gender affirmation<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Underlying problems ignored<\/strong><\/h2>\n