US falling behind in recognizing dangers of childhood gender transition

I love my country. The U.S.A. may have its problems, but for now we have the best economy, best justice system, best healthcare, most freedoms, and I feel safe in my community (of course, I live in a small Texas town that actually puts criminals in jail). But why are we behind Europe in protecting children from destroying their bodies with gender reassignment surgeries or destroying their health with puberty blockers?

Last month, France senators called for banning transgender medical services for children. According to the Daily Wire, they released a 340-page report that calls medically transitioning minors “one of the greatest ethical scandals in the history of medicine.”

Britain did their own study through their National Health Service (NHS) and found that all transgender medical treatment was built on “weak evidence.” They recommended that puberty blockers should no longer be prescribed to children because of its effects on brain development and bone health. They also recommended waiting until a person turns at least 18 years of age before administering cross-sex hormones to hopefully preserve fertility if and when that person decides they want to transition back, which happens frequently for those who transition as minors.

NHS also reported that children who are referred for gender services have high rates of abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect, as well as parental substance abuse. I would think those things should be addressed before doing something drastic and unnecessary like gender reassignment.

England is closing down their only youth gender clinic, which was the largest of its kind in the world. They were seeing an increase of young girls coming in with gender-related issues asking for drugs to transition and being prescribed those drugs even while they had mental issues like depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.

Scotland’s only gender clinic has paused prescribing puberty blockers to new patients under 18. Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden have followed suit as a result of the Britain report.

The research these European countries are digging into show some of the serious health issues for kids using puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Some of the things include negatively affecting bone growth and density, sexual dysfunction, infertility, voice damage, blood clots, heart attacks, increased cancer risks, liver dysfunction, and psychological issues.

To top it off, surgeries and drugs are not shown to decrease suicide rates among those who identify as transgender. In a study conducted by Hertiage Foundation, since 2010 when puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone became more widely available, suicide rates have increased in the 12-23 age group.

One would hope that our federal government would read these reports and at least pause things and think about the harm being done, but no. In fact, it seems our country has doubled-down on alerting children’s bodies.

Michael Knowles, conservative speaker and author of The Daily Wire, suggests that transgenderism in general is mostly an American problem. He cited a recent study out of Virginia Tech’s School of Medicine that says 80 percent of sampled diagnoses of gender dysphoria came from the United States. That’s a huge majority, and not something to be proud of. We are becoming a nation of confusion. Maybe that’s why our current political establishment can’t even seem to get behind reality anymore, because they don’t want to tick off their mentally unstable followers. They don’t want to lose votes.

You also have to ask why the American medical community isn’t putting the brakes on minor gender transitions. Are American doctors more greedy than the rest of the world since most of these people will become slaves to medical procedures and prescription drugs their whole lives due to what they’re doing to their bodies now, or are they more afraid of what taking a stand will do to their livelihoods? That is a legitimate concern. The author of the British report, Dr. Hillary Cass, is facing lots of threats to her career and to her person. But she’s more upset with what she considers the disinformation being spread about it, which I find refreshing.

Our government also seems to be behind things that continue to break down the family and perhaps weed out the weak since they won’t make it a priority to help young people actually accept who they are and instead push methods that rush them into a lifetime of misery and infertility. Not only will they become lifetime customers of the medical community with continued health problems, they will become more dependent on the government for survival, which makes them easier to control.

Kimberly Jones is a Nolan County native, former news reporter, writer, wife, mother, and lover of small-town life. If you have an idea you would like to share with her, email her at kimberlyjgray74@ gmail.com.