Protecting the Sexual Development of Children and Young People

An earlier article late last year discussed the sex (or gender) “transitioning” of minors, and the grave threat this poses to health and to parental authority. The same topic was discussed at the Family Research Council’s recent PrayVoteStand Summit, on October 8.  Joseph Backholm, Senior Fellow for Biblical Worldview at FRC discussed this severe problem with a panel consisting of Brenton Netz, a parent who is fighting a legal battle to prevent his son from being given gender transition hormones and treatments, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who is defending a state law against “gender transitioning” of minors in court, and Brandon Showalter, a journalist with the Christian Post who focuses on “the intersection of faith and public life.”

Backholm observed that a recent Gallup poll determined that “1.8% of ‘Gen Z’ identifies as transgender.” This is nine times greater than just “a couple of years ago.” Many “Western countries have seen a 1000% – 5000% increase in mostly white teenage females seeking treatment from gender clinics and psychologists.”

First, Netz related his experience with his son, Miles, who claimed in counseling sessions that his father was unaware of that his gender identity was lesbian, with his “earliest memories of being a girl” as being when he was three years old. Earlier, he had been diagnosed with autism at age four, and demonstrated an obsessive personality. He was treated at a gender clinic by an LGBT therapist who believes it is his job to “re-parent” children. Netz said that the therapist “meticulously manipulated” his son to believe that he was “a transgender girl, and lesbian,” and discussed with him the possibility of administering “irreversible hormones and surgical options.” He said that the belief of his son, who is indeed autistic, that he is a “transgender lesbian” could not possibly be his son’s spontaneous belief, but was essentially engineered by the adults who counseled him. Counselors also examined his son to determine the stage of puberty he might be at, in order to determine if cross sex hormones should be given. He said that “the hospital health care system along with the family courts have repeatedly violated my parental rights.” He believes that “these institutions have been steadily corrupted by the postmodern gender ideology.”

Arkansas Attorney General Rutledge is defending in court the Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, a new law in Arkansas which prohibits cross sex hormones being given to minors. Rutledge said that plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Arkansas’ law “are ages 16, 15, and 9.” She said that she saw parental abuse of children “first hand” as a prosecutor, and that parents were “held accountable” for it. If the abuse was stopping a child’s sexual development against his or her will, they would certainly be held accountable for it. A minor deciding to stop physical sexual development hardly makes sense, since people under the age of 18 are not allowed to vote, buy cigarettes, serve in the armed forces, get married without a parent’s consent, or demand “any other medical procedures” other than gender transitioning. Children do not even have the right to determine which parent will have custody of them in cases of divorce. But courts and medical providers are in fact making “life-altering, permanent decisions” regarding minor children. This is “why we had to pass the SAFE Act in the State of Arkansas.”

Showalter said from his research as a journalist regarding the gender transitioning of children and adolescents that he has “never heard such excruciating anguish from moms and dads … many of them are not even Christians, they are not conservative – I’ve received phone calls from atheists, left-wing people.” He said that the “pain and anguish” is “absolutely off the charts …as they are being forced to watch the slow motion dissociation and chemical disintegration of their children.” Only part of this involves the transitioning of minors. He said that a common occurrence is for mentally distressed persons to receive cross sex hormones on turning 18. A mother who had this to happen to her daughter found that that she was able to obtain testosterone for herself in her 50s, while Showalter himself was able to obtain female hormones, claiming to be a 21 year old man. He said he told the Planned Parenthood staffer with whom he spoke that he understood that the brain’s decision making capacity is not fully developed until age 25 (which he said is well established science), but the staffer told him that this was “smoke coming out of nowhere.” Aided by the mass media and educational system, these experiences are now not uncommon he said, and it is “shattering families left and right.”

Backholm quoted Abigal Shrier from her book Irreversible Damage, to say that her interview of a former employee of Planned Parenthood had discussed how decisions were made at the PP facility at which she worked regarding giving a child cross-sex hormones. These decisions were made by a “clinic manager” with “no prior medical experience, and whose former job was managing at Wendys.” The former PP employee said that “trans identifying kids are cash cows, they are kept on the hook, for the foreseeable future, in terms of follow-up appointments, blood work, meetings, etc., whereas abortions are, hopefully, a one and done situation.” Thus, “gender transitioning” has a “tremendous” financial incentive for those parties that provide it.

Backholm then asked Netz, the embattled father defending his son from gender transitioning, what he had learned dealing with health care personnel. Netz said that he is “the only adult in my son’s life who is not affirming his delusion.” This is true of “the schools … everybody in the medical establishment … it’s like everyone just drank a bunch of Kool Aid.” In cases where a parent objects to the transitioning of his or her child, medical personnel refer the parent to family court, and the family courts “either can’t, or won’t” solve the problem. This is why laws like the SAFE Act need to be passed, because otherwise there is gridlock.

Rutledge said that “common sense has been thrown out the window.” She believes that a restoration of Christian belief as a commonly accepted worldview is necessary to restore common sense. She said that while Arkansas’ governor vetoed the SAFE Act legislation, the legislature overrode the veto. Parents must be very pro-active about fighting gender ideology, identifying lawmakers, journalists, and others in society who will defend a reasonable understanding of sex and thus their children against the self-determination gender ideology mandates.

Backholm asked Showalter how people should answer the claim that “the science compels” gender transitioning of children who testify that their bodies are wrong. The hazard of suicide is commonly cited as a consequence of rejecting gender ideology (although personal pain does not require a decision for suicide). Showalter said that “science has been perverted beyond imagination.” This is enabled by “the mainstream media.” The media’s conversion to gender ideology is profound, and the greatest enabler of the rejection of common sense. He said that we should “take a look at who stands to profit from putting children on a lifetime of medicalization, experimental medicalization.” He observed that there is a network of activist organizations and revenue streams that have created a “massive” global infrastructure “to dissociate children from their own bodies.” While it seems like a “horror show” and a “conspiracy,” his research shows that “it’s actually real.”

Showalter noted that in 2007, the nation had only one pediatric gender clinic, located in Boston, but “today there are hundreds.” Major hospitals may be more highly regarded if they have a pediatric gender clinic. If puberty blocking drugs are given to a child to prevent puberty, it is not a “pause button,” and fully reversible, but “almost a guarantee that they will then follow on with cross-sex hormones.” Gender affirming personnel can then perhaps go on to surgery. In any case, for children on a path of gender transition, the combination of “puberty blockade and cross-sex hormones is almost a guarantee of their foreclosure of their fertility.” Since the body of someone who has received gender transitioning was designed to be different from the physical alterations made to it, it can be expected that continued medical attention will be needed for decades into the future. Showalter urged that distressed children and adolescents should not have their bodies altered from what they were designed for simply because it accords with prevailing ideology.

Backholm cited an article in the British leftist journal, The Guardian, which claims that none of the studies consulted concerning people who have completed gender transitioning with sexual anatomy altering surgery show that it provides conclusive evidence that gender transitioning is beneficial. How can it be that gender ideology is dominant is society? It is because its advocates “are more willing to lie” and say, for instance, that men can be pregnant, than advocates of common sense are willing to deny that men can be pregnant. The doctrine of self-determination, that an individual unquestionably is who he or she says they are, is key. The humiliation of having self-determination denied trumps reality. But we must finally live by reality, not our imaginations. Moreover, certain identities, such as that of those who have renounced LGBT identity, are simply denied.

Backholm asked Routledge what the legal argument is that gender transitioning for minors must be legal. The claim is that there can be no state interference between a child and his or her doctor, and that sex confused children will be “permanently harmed” if medical personnel cannot give experimental medication. The contrary argument is that such a child will be permanently harmed if they do proceed with experimental medications used for “gender transitioning.” This is particularly so since a crucial stage of sexual development is being interrupted. But Routledge also said that while people must be identified by their natural sex, we should not deny the trauma of sex confused children, and hold them up in prayer.

Showalter said that while people may feel helpless against gender ideology, and prayer is very important in stopping it, we should also refuse to be complicit in the ideology in any case, including the complicity of using new terminology introduced by gender ideology. In particular, people should cease using the word “transgender” to refer to someone who claims to be of the opposite sex (i.e., a “transgender man” to refer to a woman claiming to be a man, or “transgender woman” to refer to a man claiming to be a woman). Similarly, such a word as “cisgender” to refer to someone who identifies with his or her body, is unnecessary, or even “heterosexual” to refer to someone attracted to the opposite sex. Gender ideology has no physical basis, but it has a metaphysical basis, a self-centered metaphysics contrary to both Christianity and common sense. Using gender ideology terms reinforces the claim that a person can determine his or her sex. Backholm added that people may feel constrained to use gender ideology terminology out of curtesy, but should resist using it in the interest of truth. Showalter remarked that in responding to “weaponized compassion it’s not loving to lie, ever.”

Backholm asked Netz what the response has been of his friends and associates to his predicament and that of his son. He said that they “are appalled by it.” He remarked that we live in “two worlds right now … we live in the world of sanity, and then there’s the other world. And we just have to continue to promote our world of sanity.”

A Christian can easily see that it is wrong to deface the image of God; it is what he has made us to be. But even a non-Christian should be able to see that sexual mutilation is wrong, and especially the interruption of sexual development at a crucial stage. Similarly, the physical mutilation desired by people with body integrity disorder is wrong, and those who desire either are delusional. With gender ideology, and gender transitioning, the thief of our lives has truly come. Christians should show, in their personal and organizational lives, that Christ offers abundant life.