The United States persists in being an outlier nation when it comes to OKing drugs and surgery on tweens and teens despite the growing evidence that for most kids gender-confusion is simply a phase.
Much of Europe has moved away from the junk science surrounding gender transition, especially pediatric gender transition.
Yet transgender extremism has a tight grip on the US medical establishment, cultural elites, progressive politicians — and school boards.
As Karol Markowitz notes, a major, 15-year Dutch study just confirmed that transgenderism among children is largely a fad.
Researchers in the Netherlands found that most teens experiencing gender dysphoria eventually “outgrew” it (with many resolving larger mental-health issues) and felt adjusted by early adulthood.
Federal rules issued under President Barack Obama told doctors they couldn’t decline to perform gender reassignment surgery on kids if it’s recommended by a “mental health professional.”
The nationwide order went out despite Health and Human Services medical experts noting that gender-transition procedures can themselves be harmful to minors.
These drastic procedures include puberty-suppression drugs, cross-hormone therapy and radical plastic surgery that increase lifelong risks of heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, cancer, loss of bone density and other serious side effects — not to mention sterility and the irreversibility of most surgeries.
Adding to the madness are leaked documents from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health revealing that some doctors oppose disclosing potential risks despite privately acknowledging the devastating and permanent side effects.
Locally, the Equal Rights Amendment on the New York ballot in November would write this dangerous madness into the state Constitution: Though painted as protecting abortion rights, it could permanently eliminate parental rights to veto their kids undergoing transgender surgery or going on puberty blockers.
The hard truth is that activists rushed to false conclusions about what’s best for these kids, the global medical establishment initially caved and is only now realizing the truth is far more complicated.
Cries of “bigotry” may still have US institutions (and much of the media) cowed, but it’s beyond insane to lock terrible junk science into law.