A federal judge has issued a stunning blow to the Trump administration’s agenda to protect biological reality and childhood innocence. In a March 19 ruling, the U.S. District Court in Oregon ruled against the administration’s Department of Health and Human Services by blocking an order for hospitals to cease providing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors.
The Trump administration has offered massive wins in the fight against child sex changes. But the proponents of such so-called “treatments” won’t let their agenda go that easy. Proponents of protecting child innocence should expect even greater momentum towards these treatments in the coming years.
The order had specifically targeted the Medicaid and Medicare funds of hospitals should they fail to comply with new directives barring sex changes for minors. Several hospitals had responded by immediately ceasing offering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. It was a clear win, but sadly not a decisive one. Executive orders can be challenged, laws can be overturned, and directives may be ignored.
Policy changes are necessary, but only part of the solution. Hospitals, doctors, and politicians will respond to public opinion more than they will respond to edicts from a government that is committed to ending child sex changes. The task ahead is to change public opinion, to create an environment where it is unthinkable to offer irreversible medications to children and ridiculous to call such medications “care.”
The transgender lobby is very good at telling stories. From the hit TV series I Am Jazz, to the countless stories used to sway public opinion in support of a position that would otherwise be laughed out of existence, media and advocacy groups have shown us exactly how to fight against them. We have to use the same tools for good. We should aim for a world where the stories of detransitioners like Chloe Cole and Prisha Mosley are as well known as the stories of teens and preteens offered dangerous puberty blockers by their own doctors and therapists.
The ACLU released a story detailing “the human toll of Trump’s anti-trans crusade.” The story quoted children claiming their puberty blockers and hormone therapies were curing their depression and making them finally feel at-home in their own bodies. One child began “treatments” at 12. In publishing this story in an attempt to discredit the Trump administration’s efforts to ban such medications for young children, it is obvious the ACLU is counting on a public that will be guilted into supporting this child’s continued exploitation in the name of compassion.
Prisha Mosley was on testosterone at the age of 12, a decision she was not qualified to make at such a young age, but one which haunts her even today. Her post-trans journey to become a mother, specifically, has been excruciating and terrifying. Her body had not been allowed to develop as a healthy woman’s body, and as a result, carrying her pregnancy was incredibly painful, due to the shrunken size of her uterus from the cross-sex hormones she took as a minor. Vaginal delivery was impossible, as her hip bones had not been allowed to develop wide enough to birth a baby, and a botched double mastectomy left her unable to ever breastfeed her baby. She describes her suffering as, “a waking nightmare in which I am haunted by the ghosts of my missing body parts.”
Mosley’s story, and others like hers, must be amplified if we hope to secure more than cursory wins in this fight. Legislation and executive orders are important, but only downstream of a culture that affirms biological reality and refuses to allow egotistical medical professionals to surgically and hormonally alter a child’s body. The process must become unthinkable.