Officials in Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration are pushing for the age limit to be reduced for children to undergo life-altering gender surgeries.
The push was exposed in recently unsealed court documents.
The files show that health officials in the Biden administration urged an international transgender health nonprofit to omit the age limit in its guidelines for surgical procedures for adolescents.
The push for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) to omit the age limit succeeded, the documents revealed.
The documents revealed that staff for Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary “Rachel” Levine, pushed the WPATH to drop the age minimum requirement altogether to avoid seeing conservative lawmakers work to put such age restrictions into law, The New York Times first reported.
The 2021 draft guidelines suggested 17 for genital surgeries or hysterectomies, 16 for breast augmentation or facial surgeries, 15 for mastectomies, and 14 for hormonal treatments.
However, the finalized WPATH 2022 guidelines did not include any age limit, the Times reported.
After publication, the White House denied the report in a statement, claiming: “The Administration does not support surgery for minors.”
Excerpts of emails within WPATH’s advisory group were included in legal filings for a federal lawsuit challenging Alabama’s ban on transgender surgeries for minors.
The files were released by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.
The lawsuit was filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of five transgender children and their families, the Times reported.
One email from a member of the WPATH guideline development group described a conversation with Sarah Boateng, then-Levine’s chief of staff.
According to the email, Boateng was confident that specifying ages under 18 could lead to “devastating legislation for trans care.”
“She wonders if the specific ages can be taken out,” the excerpt read.
Levine, a man who claims to be a “transgender woman,” said he “was very concerned that having ages (mainly for surgery) will affect access to care for trans youth and maybe adults, too,” another email read.
“Apparently the situation in the U.S.A. is terrible and [Levine] and the Biden administration worried that having ages in the document will make matters worse.
“[Levine] asked us to remove them.”
James Cantor, a psychologist and critic of adolescent transgender procedures, filed the excerpts from the emails as evidence in support of Alabama’s federal lawsuit, the Times reported.
No emails from Levine’s office specifically were released.
These emails, part of his report, suggest that WPATH made decisions influenced by politics rather than science in developing its transgender guidelines.
The Times reported that the plaintiffs in the case are attempting to prevent Cantor from testifying.
Transgender procedures and treatments for children have become a hot-button issue in the country’s culture war.
More than a dozen states in the U.S. have enacted bans on surgical procedures and hormonal prescriptions for gender-confused youth.
Idaho, North Dakota, Florida, Oklahoma, and Alabama have passed laws making it a felony to perform sex changes on children.
Several blue states, meanwhile, have enacted “sanctuary state” laws in recent years shielding medical providers from facing penalties for conducting transgender procedures on adolescents.
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