The Biden administration appeared to backpedal on the issue of child sex change attempts, now saying it does not support sex change operations on minors. The apparent about-face comes just after it was revealed that a trans-identifying Biden official pressured an organization to eliminate age requirements for the surgical procedures.
A White House spokesman said plainly that “the Administration does not support surgery for minors” on Wednesday in a comment that came amid a broader controversy surrounding the use of sex change interventions on children.
The statement puts the White House at odds with numerous Democrat states and transgender activist organizations, both of which have waged a campaign to ensure the availability of sex change operations to children. The Supreme Court is set to consider a Tennessee law that would ban gender surgeries for minors, as well as the administration of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone treatments. The decision could have serious implications for the 24 other states that have passed similar laws that seek to protect children from irreversible medical interventions intended to modify sex appearance.
Staff members for Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services and a man who identifies as a woman, pressured the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) to remove age limits for sex change operations from its transgender standards of care document.
One uncovered email reveals that Sarah Boateng, who previously served as Levine’s chief of staff, argued that age limits could contribute to “devastating legislation for trans care.”
“She wonders if the specific ages can be taken out,” an email from a WPATH member reads. A separate email explained that Levine “was very concerned that having ages (mainly for surgery) will affect access to care for trans youth and maybe adults, too.”
“Apparently the situation in the U.S.A. is terrible and she and the Biden administration worried that having ages in the document will make matters worse. She asked us to remove them,” the email reads.
WPATH publishes a “standards of care” document, with the 2021 draft originally suggesting various different age limits depending on the procedure, such as 17 for genital surgeries or hysterectomies, 16 for breast augmentation or facial surgeries, 15 for mastectomies and 14 for hormonal treatments. The final 2022 WPATH document did not include any age limits, however.
President Joe Biden previously spoke out against states that have banned transgender medical interventions for minors, ranging from puberty blocker administration to surgical operations, referencing the pieces of legislation in a 2023 statement that claimed “more than 600 hateful laws have been introduced this year targeting the LGBTQI+ community, particularly youth.”
The administration even intervened in a case concerning Tennessee’s law banning transgender medical interventions for minors, coming down on the side of families who sued the state in an attempt to prevent the law from going into effect.
Biden even called Florida’s law banning the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery for those under the age of 18 “close to sinful.”
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