transgender

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”

Research Supports Why Exposing ‘Trans’ Lies is True Compassion

Strong research data, coming forth over the last few months, has demonstrated that “trans” identity among young people is not the natural thing gender activists wanted us to believe it is. The Daily Citizen has reported on the most recent developments, here, here and here.

Now new data from Washington University professor Ryan Burge strongly affirms this fact. Professor Burge posted his new findings on X and his Substack today:

Burge wanted to “replicate and validate” Jean Twenge’s October finding from the nationally representative Cooperative Election Study (CES) survey showing that trans identity was in free fall among young people. Professor Twenge reported that data supports her conclusion: “It turns out identifying as transgender really is in free fall among the young in the U.S. So is identifying as nonbinary.”

Burge asked, “Has there been a noticeable decline in the share of 18 – 22-year-olds who identify as transgender over the last couple of years?” He replies definitively, “The answer is unequivocal: yes.”

In fact, the number of respondents who identified as “transgender” just years ago have fallen by more than half in many categories. In 2020, 2.5% of all U.S. adults said they were transgender. That number crashed to just 1% in 2024. Burge explains, “The sharpest decline is clearly concentrated among the youngest slice of the American electorate – and the share keeps dropping as older respondents are included.”

Burge found “the biggest drop in raw numbers still comes from the younger part of the sample.” Specifically, of those born in the mid- to late-nineties, 7.5% identified as trans in 2020, but in 2024, only 2.3% did, a decline of two-thirds. Of Americans born in the early 2000s, trans identification dropped from 8.5% to 4.1% over those years.

The decline took place among older adults as well.

Of those born in the 1970s, 1.6% said they were transgender in 2020, but by 2024, that number had collapsed to just 0.3%. For those born in the 1980s, trans identity dropped from 4.8% in 2020 to just 0.9% in 2024. Burge comments, “So this isn’t just a phenomenon limited to the very youngest adults — there were significant declines among people in their thirties and forties as well” (emphasis in original).

Abigail Shrier cogently highlighted the “contagion” nature of girls and young women suddenly identifying as trans in her important 2020 book, Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. The introductory chapter of her book is bluntly entitled, “The Contagion.” Outlets like Psychology Today were negative on her book.

Burge’s data resoundingly affirms her conclusion. He explains that for young women, trans identity “dropped from 6.9% in 2020 to just 0.3% in 2024.” He adds, “And that’s not a typo – out of 3,914 respondents between the ages of 18 and 22, only six identified as both a woman and transgender”(emphasis in original).

Republicans Less Likely to Identify

Burge broke his numbers down according to political affiliation, finding that young Republicans were about half as likely as young Democrats to identify as transgender in 2020, 6.9% to 12% respectively.  The decline among both from 2020 to 2024 was stark. But it was notably stronger for Republicans. In fact, Burge’s data showed it “basically vanished” after 2020. In fact, Burge confesses, “I don’t want to stray too far into hot-take territory, but it seems that around 2021 the Republican Party drew a clear ‘bright line’ on this issue – and when that happened, the idea of trans Republicans all but disappeared”(emphasis in original).

This data point supports the wisdom of Alexander Solzhenitzen’s famous 1974 essay, “Live Not By Lies,” written against communist and Marxist lies. As he was being exiled to the United States, the famous anti-communist novelist told his fellow countrymen to refuse, in every instance, to live by the lies of Marxist ideology. Doing so is “the easiest way for us and the most devastating for the lies.” Solzhenitsyn added, “For when people renounce lies, lies simply cease to exist. Like parasites, they can only survive when attached to a person.”

And this appears to be what happened among conservatives in the United States. When the contagion of transgenderism was called out as false, identification with it among certain groups essentially disappeared.

This is why standing against the lies of transgenderism with full confidence and no apology is the wisest, most compassionate action. We must continue this work for the sake of others who are caught up in the contagion.

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

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a complaint against “three medical organizations for promoting child mutilation” for children who reject their sex.

The lawsuit names the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for causing irreversible harm to confused children by recommending irreversible medical interventions, such as puberty blockers, opposite sex hormones and surgeries.

The organizations are charged with violating Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization) Act.

Uthmeier posted an announcement of the suit on X, saying:

We believe these organizations failed to disclose the risks, limits and evidence when promoting so-called gender-affirming care for children.
For years, these groups insisted the recommendations were “settled science,” when behind closed doors they knew the evidence was weak. They knew the outcomes uncertain and the risks very real.

The Attorney General excoriated the groups for hiding information from parents and emotionally blackmailing them into allowing their children to be experimented upon:

In fact, some parents were told that if they didn’t put their kids through permanent, life-altering, sick procedures like double mastectomies and castration, that their child would commit suicide.
Not only is that unethical and dangerous medicine, but it is against the law.

The lawsuit details the sordid history of “transgender medicine,” noting that “pediatric gender dysphoria” was rare just ten years ago but has “skyrocketed in recent years,” citing a report of 724,000 children identifying as “transgender” in 2023.

The puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries “are extremely profitable for Defendants and their members,” the suit explains, referencing insurance data showing such interventions were a $4.1 billion industry in 2022 – projected to rise to $8 billion by 2030.

The case against the organizations describes the way the groups built a circular, self-referential façade of evidence for their “standards of care”: Newer versions of WPATH’s recommendations cited older versions as “evidence”; WPATH cited the Endocrine Society’s guidance – then sponsoring updates of those same guidelines; and the American Academy of Pediatrics policies cited both WPATH and the Endocrine Society in their guidance.

But then, the lawsuit explains:

The house of cards collapsed in 2024, however, when internal leaks, litigation discovery, and systematic reviews commissioned by national health agencies exposed Defendants’ “circular” guidelines as an elaborate sham.

Despite this, “Defendants continue to peddle their discredited clinical guidelines as ‘evidence-based standards of care’ to sell memberships,” with health care professionals, hospitals and clinics profiting from these destructive procedures.

The AAP and the Endocrine Society were just as culpable, with both groups adopting WPATH standards for treating minors and the AAP encouraging insurance companies to “offer coverage for health care that is specific to the needs of youth who identify as TGD [Transgender and Gender Diverse], including coverage for . . . surgical gender-affirming interventions.”

In 2022, Florida’s Department of Health examined the evidence for these interventions, finding no scientific support for inflicting these experimental procedures on children.

The state blocked Medicare payments for transgender drugs and surgeries for minors, and the Florida Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine voted to protect children, prohibiting the damaging practices.

WPATH, the AAP and the Endocrine Society pushed back, denouncing the state’s action to safeguard children and submitting amicus briefs in support of parents and minors who challenged Florida’s actions in court.

The most recent WPATH Standards of Care claim:

There is strong evidence demonstrating the benefits in quality of life and well-being of gender-affirming treatments, including endocrine and surgical procedures.

But the state of Florida points to reviews from Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the U.S. that show little evidence for giving children powerful experimental drugs and hormones or mutilating their bodies with surgeries.

In addition, the suit accuses the organizations of being politically and ideologically motivated and using poor methodology to come up with their “standards of care.”

Florida is seeking a fine of $1 million for each organization and $10,000 for each violation of its Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, as well as permanent injunctions against their “misleading advertisements regarding the safety, reversibility, or efficacy of pediatric sex interventions.”

WPATH, the AAP and the Endocrine Society should be held accountable for promoting these devastating, irreversible procedures for children. We pray that Florida will be successful in its pursuit of justice.  

Related articles and resources:

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Shuts Down Harmful ‘Center for Transyouth’

Doctor Refuses to Publish Major Study Finding Puberty-Blocking Drugs Don’t Help Children

FBI, DOJ Target Those Mutilating Children with ‘Transgender’ Drugs and Surgeries

Florida Protects Children, Bans Experimental ‘Trans’ Procedures on Minors

Focus on the Family: Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources

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

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

New Video Equips Parents and Counselors to Help ‘Gender Dysphoric’ Children

Pam Bondi Directs DOJ Attorneys to Investigate Transgender Procedures for Minors

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?

U.K.’s Review of Child Gender Policy Reveals Profound Failures That U.S. Still Defends

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

In celebration of “Transgender Awareness Week,” Westland Middle School, in Bethesda, Maryland, gave sixth grade students lessons on “transgenderism” and “being nonbinary.”

As reported by Fox News, the 11- and 12-year-old students were inculcated into the irrational, deceptive world of transgender ideology via videos and a 12-slide presentation.  

As reporter Andrew Mark Miller explained for the news outlet:

Multiple slides in the presentation provide information on “what it means” to be transgender and students are then quizzed about what they learned.
In another slide, students are told to discuss questions with their neighbor in class, including, How do people know if they are a ‘girl’ or ‘boy?’”
Slide from Fox News of the sixth grade lesson on “transgenderism.”

Another slide asked students to answer questions such as: “What do I already know about the experiences of transgender people?”; “What do I want to know about the experiences of transgender people?”; and, following the lesson, “What have I learned about the experiences of transgender people?”

The slides included “8 Tips for Being Nonbinary!” a video from a “non-binary producer” named “Laurenzo” who has 889 thousand followers on TikTok and 54 thousand followers on Instagram.

In the video, Laurenzo answered questions such as, “If someone calls you by your wrong pronouns, what do you do?” and “I don’t know which ‘label’ is right for me … Help?”

“Laurenzo” in front of the “nonbinary” flag.

In answering the latter question, Laurenzo described her journey from straight to bisexual to lesbian to nonbinary, saying she always identified as an “androgynous person.”

She encouraged the sixth graders “to create the identity that you feel is your true self on the inside,” rather than embracing their male or female sex.

The activist also referred to her “chosen family” – a term used by some in the LGBT community when they reject their natural family and embrace others who identify as homosexual or transgender as their “real family.” 

Laurenzo goes on to talk about “how to bind properly.” Breast binding, also known as chest binding, is the dangerous practice of using cloth strips, sports bras or special undergarments that compress breast tissue, flattening the breasts in an attempt to look male.

These attempts by females to look masculine come with many risks, as a fact sheet from the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) explains. The professional organization notes that 89-97% of individuals who bind their breasts report adverse reactions in online surveys, including:

  • Chest and/or back pain, reported by 75-80%, with 39% describing severe pain and 21% reporting limitation in daily activities.
  • Fractured ribs (3%).
  • Pulmonary problems, such as shortness of breath (47-68%); reduced exercise tolerance and difficulty speaking; pulmonary edema; and restrictive lung disease.
  • Skin problems (78%),including acne, rashes, itching and scarring.

ACPeds concludes:

Since most children and adolescents who feel uncomfortable with their biological sex, will feel comfortable at the end of normal uninterrupted puberty, chest (breast) binding should not be recommended. Those who practice chest binding should be educated about the adverse effects.

Laurenzo notes that binding “restricts your breathing, but she then goes on to tell the sixth graders:

My general advice about binding is make sure you’re being safe about it, don’t be wearing a binder more than eight hours in a day [and] definitely not exercising.

There is nothing “safe” about this practice. Montgomery County Public Schools is promoting a dangerous, false ideology. When young people attempt to change their bodies to mimic the opposite sex, there are multiple, irreparable health risks.  

Humans are made in the image of God – male and female. This isn’t just a biblical, theological issue, it’s also a matter of science. “Gender,” as some sort of internal self-definition, is a false concept.

Westland Middle School is one of the top-ranked middle schools in Maryland – yet it is teaching an unscientific concept as if it were true. In addition, only 68% of students are proficient in reading and 40% are proficient in math – scores which would earn a D and an F, respectively, in most classrooms.

Rather than indoctrination, the school should stick to teaching the basics.

Related articles and resources:

Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

An Essential Primer on Defending the Reality of Male and Female

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

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

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

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies

Resources for families struggling with wrong-sex identification

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?

‘Transgender Means Many Different Things’ — And Nothing

What Does it Mean to Be Trans, Anyway?