transgender

18 States Sue HHS for Protecting Children From Sex-Rejecting Procedures

A coalition of 18 states on Tuesday filed a lawsuit to block the Trump administration from protecting children from sex-rejecting, mutilating procedures.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at a Protecting Children event on December 18, announced multiple regulatory actions the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would take to protect children from “transgender” medical interventions.

The department is working to fulfill President Trump’s executive order, signed on January 28, 2025, Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.

The secretary revealed that earlier on Dec. 18, he signed a declaration: “Sex-rejecting procedures are neither safe nor effective treatment for children with gender dysphoria.” It establishes new standards of care and rules out interventions like puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries, which “fail to meet” those standards.

The secretary may “exclude individuals or entities from participation in any Federal health care program” if they fail to comply with the declaration.

Secretary Kennedy drew from a comprehensive review, which HHS released earlier this year, of the evidence for treating children with gender dysphoria. It found there is “very weak evidence of benefit” for “medical interventions, such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, that attempt to transition children and adolescents away from their sex.”

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is also proposing a rule barring hospitals from performing sex-rejecting procedures on children under age 18 as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs. Nearly all U.S. hospitals participate Medicare and Medicaid.

“This proposal seeks to clarify that hospitals participating in our programs cannot conduct these unproven procedures on children,” said CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz in a press release. “CMS will ensure that federal program standards reflect our responsibility to promote the health and safety of children.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, is led by the attorneys general of New York, Oregon, and Washington.

It argues the Kennedy Declaration “exceeds the Secretary’s authority and violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Medicare and Medicaid statutes.” The attorneys general are asking the court to strike down the declaration and prevent the Trump administration from enforcing it.

“Secretary Kennedy cannot unilaterally change medical standards by posting a document online” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “And no one should lose access to medically necessary health care because their federal government tried to interfere in decisions that belong in doctors’ offices.”

Joining the lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, as well as the governor of Pennsylvania.

At the Protecting Children event, Fox News’ Chief Washington Correspondent Mike Emanuel asked Kennedy about the possibility of Democrat-led states and LGBT-activist groups filing lawsuits against HHS’ actions, tying the administration up in court for the next several years.

“I think that’s going to happen,” Kennedy replied, joking, “The number of lawsuits with my name on it right now is almost beyond counting.”

“We know what we’re doing is legal,” he added. “And if people sue us, they’re welcome to, but we’re going to win the lawsuits.”

The Trump administration is exactly right – and deserves commendation – for protecting children from damaging and mutilating transgender medical interventions. Let’s hope and pray it quickly prevails in court.

The case is Oregon v. Kennedy.

Related articles and resources:

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Transgender Resources

Understanding “Transgenderism”

Teenager Identifies as Transgender

Responding to a Transgender-Identified Family Member

Support for Parent Whose Adult Child Identifies as Transgender

God’s Amazing Grace in a Transgendered Person’s Life

Chloe Cole: Gender Reassignment Surgery Regret

FDA Sends Warning Letters to Companies Promoting Sex-Rejecting Breast Binders

HHS Will Block Hospitals From Performing Sex-Rejecting, Mutilating Procedures on Children

HHS Releases Report on Harms of ‘Transgender’ Medical Interventions for Minors

Photo from Getty Images.

California Schools May Not Hide Students’ ‘Gender Identity’ From Parents

A U.S. District Court affirmed parents’ fundamental constitutional rights and blocked California schools from hiding information about a child’s “gender identity” from them.

Judge Roger T. Benitez’ decision also affirmed the religious liberty and free speech of teachers, saying the legislators and the California Department of Education (CDOE) could not force teachers to lie to parents or hide their children’s sexual identity confusion from them.

In addition to striking down California’s “parental exclusion policies,” the judge also made some critically true comments about parents’ rights and transgenderism.

It’s a huge victory in the fight against government tyranny in the Golden State, as legislators and agencies have run roughshod over parents and children in their effort to support “transgender” ideology.

Judge Benitez, a George W. Bush appointee, stated that the class action lawsuit involved four fundamental legal questions:

  • First, do parents have a right to gender information based on the Fourteenth Amendment’s substantive due process clause? 
  • Second, do parents have a right to gender information protected by the First Amendment’s free exercise of religion clause? 
  • Third, do religious public school teachers have a right to provide gender information to parents based on the First Amendment’s free exercise clause? 
  • Fourth, do public school teachers have a right to communicate accurate gender information to parents based on the First Amendment free speech clause?

The judge emphatically responded to these questions:

In each case, this Court concludes that, as a matter of law, the answer is “yes.”
Parents have a right to receive gender information and teachers have a right to provide to parents accurate information about a child’s gender identity.

In a press release touting the significance of the decision, Thomas More Society Special Counsel Paul M. Jonna, a partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, stated:

Today’s incredible victory finally, and permanently, ends California’s dangerous and unconstitutional regime of gender secrecy policies in schools.
The Court’s comprehensive ruling – granting summary judgment on all claims – protects all California parents, students, and teachers, and it restores sanity and common sense. With this decisive ruling from Judge Benitez, all state and local school officials that mandate gender secrecy policies should cease all enforcement or face severe legal consequences.

The case began in April 2023 when the Thomas More Society brought a lawsuit on behalf of Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, teachers at Rincon Middle School, against the Escondido Unified School District “over policies requiring them to keep secrets from, and even lie to, parents about their minor-age students.”

The Southern California school district, according to that lawsuit, required school staff to  “unhesitatingly accept a child’s assertion of a transgender or gender diverse identity.” Its “gender” policy added, “There’s no requirement for parent or caretaker agreement or even for knowledge.”

School staff were told “that ‘revealing a student’s transgender status to individuals who do not have a legitimate need for the information, without the student’s consent’ is prohibited,” adding that “parents or caretakers … do not have a legitimate need for the information.”

The complaint said the Southern California school district’s requirements “violate teachers’ free speech and free exercise of religion rights,” as well as parents’ rights to raise and care for their children.

In September 2023 Judge Benitez issued a preliminary injunction against the Escondido District policy, and in 2024 the suit was expanded into a class action lawsuit on behalf of parents and teachers across the state.

In this most recent decision, which applies to the entire state, Judge Benitez made some important statements about parents and children, transgender ideology, and the state.

First, he noted that California used “the privacy clause of the state constitution and other state anti-discrimination laws” to defend parental exclusion policies.

Judge Benitez said this was “upside-down,” elevating children’s “state-created right to privacy” above “parents’ federal constitutional right to care for and raise their children.”

He quoted 2000 Supreme Court decision Troxel v. Granville:

It is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for obligations the state can neither supply nor hinder. 

Second, transgender activists and their allies have tried to label a parent not agreeing with a child’s rejection of their sex as “abuse.” But the judge clearly stated, “Disagreement is not abuse, and the court so finds.”

In fact, not informing parents about a child’s sexual identity confusion can create serious harms. Judge Benitez pointed to three cases where hiding sexual identity confusion from parents led to serious harm to children, including increased anxiety, depression and suicidality.

Third, the judge was clear that “social transitioning,” where a child chooses a name and clothing of the opposite sex, is not a benign act, but is actually a medical decision – especially since it affects a child’s mental health.

Benitez referenced a decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that made this point, the court noting the medical goal of dealing with mental distress.

But the state of California claimed that social transitioning is a mere “polite social courtesy,” not medical care.

Judge Benitez said that “whether expressing gender incongruence is pathological or healthy, or, whether social transitioning is or is not a medical procedure” does not matter, opining, “The question is whether being involved in potentially serious medical or psychological decision-making for their school student is a parent’s constitutional right.”    

His simple response: “It is.”

Finally, the judge debunked the lie from “experts” that “a child’s gender identity is innate,” stating:

TEXT HERE

The Daily Citizen is thankful for the teachers who fought California’s unjust, unconstitutional policies; the Thomas More Society for taking the case; and Judge Roger T. Benitez for his informed, intelligent decision.

The case is Mirabelli v. Olson.

Related articles and resources:

BREAKING: Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Says California School District Cannot Force Teachers to Lie to Parents About Their Children’s ‘Gender Identity’

California Teachers Told to Hide Information About Students’ ‘Gender’ From Parents – They’re Suing

Exclusive Interview: Colorado Parents Expose ‘Gender Cult’ at Public School in New Documentary

Florida Parents Sue School for Helping Teen ‘Transition’ – Without Their Knowledge or Consent

Homosexuality Resources

Six California School Districts Pass Parental Notification Policies for Children Confused About Their Sexual Identity

Supreme Court Declines to Hear Colorado Case on Parental Rights, Still Considering Two Similar Cases

Transgender Resources

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?

FDA Sends Warning Letters to Companies Promoting Sex-Rejecting Breast Binders

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent warning letters to twelve companies last week ordering them to stop selling breast binders to children with wrong-sex confusion.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary revealed the letter campaign on December 18 at the Department of Health and Human Services’ press conference denouncing sex-rejecting procedures for minors.

“These binders are not benign,” Commissioner Makary warned. “Long-term usage has been associated with pain, compromised lung function … and even difficulty breastfeeding later in life.”

Breast binders are constricting tops designed to ease swelling from some abdominal surgeries, like cancer-related mastectomies. The FDA classifies them as medical devices and regulates their sale.

Healthy women and girls with wrong-sex confusion frequently use breast binders to appear more masculine — a dangerous, off-label use with serious physical consequences.

The FDA sent warning letters to:

  • TransGuy Supply
  • The Fluxion
  • ShapeShifter Apparel
  • Marli Washington Design
  • GenderBender
  • TomBoyX
  • FLAVNT Streetwear
  • Early to Bed
  • TOMSCOUNT
  • For Them
  • Passional Boutique
  • Trans-Missie

Each company explicitly advertises breast binders to “ease,” “reduce” or “alleviate” gender dysphoria. The letters reveal none of the companies have registered their breast binders with the FDA, which means they are illegally selling “misbranded” medical devices.  

The companies must register their breast binders with the FDA and only advertise them for approved uses to avoid further legal action, the letters warn.

“The FDA is telling these companies that the illegal marketing of breast binders to children for the purpose of treating gender dysphoria commits significant regulatory violations and requires swift congressional or corrective action,” Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. weighed in at the press conference.

HHS’ inclusion of breast binding in its larger crackdown on sex-rejecting procedures for minors reflects growing awareness about physical harm breast binding causes pubescent girls.

In her peer review of HHS’ comprehensive report on sex-rejecting procedures for minors, Karleen Gribble, a professor at Western Sydney University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, linked breast binding to adverse symptoms including chest and back pain, misshapen or deformed breasts, shortness of breath, problems breast feeding and, in extreme cases, rib fractures.

She compares breast binding to breast ironing, a “traditional practice in West Africa whereby the breasts of pubertal girls are flattened with hard objects … to discourage male sexual attention.”

The United Nations denounces breast ironing as sex-based violence and child abuse. But breast binding causes the same injuries. The U.K. Metropolitan Police even acknowledge breast binders can be used to perpetrate breast ironing.

Gribble asks the obvious question:

Why [is] breast binding as part of a West African tradition child abuse or self-harm but breast binding to support a transgender identification is apparently not?

The answer is equally obvious: Breast binding, though functionally identical to breast ironing, belongs to a popular progressive trend. It is ideologically sanitized, such that schools are promoting improper breast binding to girls with wrong-sex identification.

In November, a top-rated Maryland middle school showed sixth-grade students a video in which a self-described “non-binary” person explained “how to bind properly.”

The young woman recommended students be “safe about it” by wearing binders for fewer than eight hours a day and taking them off to exercise.

This month, women’s rights activist Beth Bourne confronted a California school district board for providing free breast binders to girls as young as twelve years old.

“A twelve-year-old girl can get a free breast binder through CommuniCare, through this board, to flatten her breasts and pretend to be a [transgender-identified] boy,” Bourne summarized incredulously.

Schools should not promote or offer this dangerous medical device to children — with or without their parents’ consent. Commissioner Makary castigated schools for such dangerous, deceptive behavior at last week’s press conference:

How is it that a child cannot get an ibuprofen without their parents’ consent at school, yet states like California are arguing that children should be able to make irreversible choices without their parents’ knowledge?

“We as doctors have a duty to speak up — and that’s why we’re here against this cruel practice,” he concluded.

Commissioner Makary’s acknowledgment of school’s complicity in promoting breast binding indicate HHS and FDA may be willing to penalize public institutions, in addition to private companies, for promoting sex-rejecting medical interventions to children.

Such relief can’t come soon enough for parents and young women.

Additional Articles and Resources

Transgender Resources

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Chloe Cole: Gender Reassignment Surgery Regret

HHS Will Block Hospitals From Performing Sex-Rejecting, Mutilating Procedures on Children

Maryland School Teaches Sixth Graders About Being ‘Transgender’ and ‘Nonbinary’

House Passes Bill banning Sex-Rejecting Procedures for Minors

HHS Finalizes Report Finding Sex-Rejecting Procedures Harm Minors

President Trump Signs Order Protecting Children From Transgender Medical Interventions

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?

The WPATH Files – Transgender Interventions Are ‘Unethical Medical Experiments’

House Passes Bill Banning Sex-Rejecting Procedures for Minors

The House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill yesterday which would ban doctors from performing sex-rejecting procedures on people under 18 years old.

The Protect Children’s Innocence Act (H.R. 3492) makes it a federal crime to administer wrong-sex hormones or perform sex-rejecting surgical procedures on minors struggling with wrong-sex confusion.

It also prohibits doctors from performing female genital mutilation, defined as “any procedure performed for non-medical reasons that involves partial or total removal of, or other injury to, the external female genitalia,” at a patient’s request.

Doctors who violate the Protect Children’s Innocence Act would face fines and up to ten years in jail.

“Children are not old enough to vote, drive or get a tattoo and they are certainly not old enough to be chemically castrated or permanently mutilated,” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who introduced H.R. 3492 in May, defended the measure.

“This is common sense,” she continued. “This is good versus evil.”

The House passed the act on December 17 in a 216-211 vote. Though most legislators voted along party lines, with Republicans voting for the bill and Democrats voting against it, a few from each party defected.

Democrat Representatives Vincente Gonzales (TX), Don Davis (NC) and Henry Cuellar (TX) voted in favor of the Protect Children’s Innocence Act. Republican Representatives Mike Kennedy (UT), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Gabe Evans (CO) and Mike Lawler (NY) voted against it.

Representative Sarah McBride, a transgender-identified man, whipped up opposition to the bill, claiming sex-rejecting procedures would have improved her childhood.

“I was a kid once,” she commented. “My biggest regret in life is that I never got a childhood without pain.”

Detransitioner Chloe Cole praised H.R. 3492’s passage precisely because sex-rejecting procedures “destroyed” her childhood.

“The House of Representatives just passed a bill that seeks to end child mutilation!” she celebrated on X, continuing:

The tide is turning and I’m so grateful that Congress is taking measurable steps to end this practice that destroyed my childhood.

McBride argued politicians “should never insert themselves into the personal health care decisions of patients, parents and their providers.”

Mounting evidence proves “gender-affirming care” isn’t health care — it’s a dangerous scam promoted by doctors and activists with ulterior motives.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began investigating the “gender-affirming” medical community for deception and false advertising earlier this year.

“The FTC is the federal government’s guardian against false and deceptive health claims,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson explained at the investigation’s onset.

“We have brought dozens of enforcement actions against false and misleading health claims, from shyster snake-oil salesmen to powerful pharmaceutical companies.”

The investigation centers on doctors who lied about the relative benefits and risks of sex-rejecting procedures or who used manipulative tactics, like asking parents whether they “would rather have a dead son or a living daughter,” to pressure patients into pursuing sex-rejecting procedures.

The FTC cannot turn a blind eye to the alleged wrongdoing perpetrated by “gender-affirming” doctors, Ferguson concluded:

Refusing to investigate these health claims, and the potential consumer harm to parents and children, merely because one political party supports ‘gender-affirming care’ as a matter of ideology would be a political choice.

The fate of the Protect Children’s Innocence Act now lies with the Senate. At least 60 senators must approve the bill to avoid a filibuster.

The Daily Citizen will continue updating this important story.

Additional Articles and Resources

Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

An Essential Primer on Defending the Reality of Male and Female

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Florida Sues Medical Groups for Promoting ‘Transgender’ Mutilation of Children

HHS Finalizes Report Finding Sex-Rejecting Procedures Harm Minors

The APA’s 5 Failed Critiques of HHS Report Discrediting Sex-Rejecting Procedures for Kids

FTC Begins Investigating ‘Gender-Affirming’ Medical Community for Deception, False Advertising

Fenway Health Stops Performing Transgender Hormone Interventions on Kids

Texas Doctor Surrenders Medical License Amid Prosecution for Child Mutilation

HHS Will Block Hospitals From Performing Sex-Rejecting, Mutilating Procedures on Children

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it will block hospitals from performing sex-rejecting, mutilating procedures on children.

A press release from the department stated that procedures to be barred “include pharmaceutical or surgical interventions of specified types that attempt to align a child’s physical appearance or body with an asserted identity different from their sex.”

The department is working to fulfill President Trump’s Executive Order, signed on January 28, 2025, Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.

In a press conference, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said he has now taken action to follow that order, directing health care providers to follow science – not transgender dogma:

This morning, I signed a declaration: Sex-rejecting procedures are neither safe nor effective treatment for children with gender dysphoria.

Secretary Kennedy used strong language to condemn hospitals, health care professionals, and medical organization that irreversibly damage children. He called these procedures “junk science” and “malpractice,” stating:

Doctors assume a solemn obligation to protect children. Yet doctors across the country now provide needless and irreversible sex-rejecting procedures that violate their sacred Hippocratic Oath by endangering the very lives that they are sworn to safeguard.

The Secretary explained that medical organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics “peddled the lie that chemical and surgical sex-rejecting procedures could be good for children who suffer from gender dysphoria” – betraying more than 300,000 young people who were “conditioned to believe that sex can be changed.”

HHS’ press release detailed steps it would take to protect children:

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will release a notice of proposed rulemaking to bar hospitals from performing sex-rejecting procedures on children under age 18 as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Nearly all U.S. hospitals participate in Medicare and Medicaid and this action is designed to ensure that the U.S. government will not be in business with organizations that intentionally or unintentionally inflict permanent harm on children.

The department was also “moving to reverse the Biden administration’s attempt to include gender dysphoria within the definition of a disability”; proposing new rules “to prohibit federal Medicaid funding for sex-rejecting procedures on children under age 18”; and “issuing warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers for illegal marketing of breast binders to children for the purposes of treating gender dysphoria.”

Pro-child activists were quick to applaud the HHS’ actions. Erin Lee, who is spearheading a ballot effort in Colorado to protect children from these horrific procedures, said, “The White House and HHS have taken HUGE steps to crack down on irreversible sex-rejecting procedures for children … “

At the same time, she noted that many states, with leaders in thrall to deceptive transgender ideology, would fight the Trump administration’s actions, adding, “That’s why we MUST *ban* this child butchery in the blue states.”

Chloe Cole, who’s body was damaged by transgender medical interventions and has fought to protect sexually confused children, praised HHS’ newly proposed rules, saying the day was “incredible” and “uplifting.”

Her moving and eloquent words at the press conference show why it’s so good and vitally important that our government is taking steps to safeguard children:

Every boy and every girl deserves to be loved – the way that they were beautifully created in their mother’s womb.
And to the young people out there who are struggling with this mental illness, I want you to know that there is a better way out, and it’s not too late to accept the beautiful way that God has created you.

Related articles and resources:

Daily Citizen:

DOJ Targets Those Mutilating Children with ‘Transgender’ Drugs and Surgeries

Florida Sues Medical Groups for Promoting ‘Transgender’ Mutilation of Children

HHS Releases Report on Harms of ‘Transgender’ Medical Interventions for Minors

President Trump Signs Order Protecting Children From Transgender Medical Interventions

Sign These Three Ballot Petitions to Protect Kids and Parental Rights in Colorado

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?

The WPATH Files – Transgender Interventions Are ‘Unethical Medical Experiments’

Focus on the Family:

Chloe Cole: Gender Reassignment Surgery Regret

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

God’s Amazing Grace in a Transgendered Person’s Life

Transgender Resources

Understanding “Transgenderism”