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Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 06:05 PM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Nearly 8 in 10 voters against Transgender Procedures for Minors

There are dozens of actions that Americans under the age of 18 are not allowed to engage in — including voting, joining the military, having sex with someone over 18, applying for credit cards, and adopting a child, to name a few.

And according to a new poll, nearly 80% of Americans believe that using puberty blockers or undergoing procedures to permanently change their sexual characteristics should be among them.

The national survey of likely 2022 election voters was conducted earlier this month by Convention of States Action in partnership with The Trafalgar Group. Survey participants were asked, “Do you believe underage minors should be required to wait until they are adults to use puberty blockers and undergo permanent sex change procedures?”

Of those who responded, 78.7% said they believe underage minors should be required to wait and 21.3% disagreed, saying they don’t believe underage minors should be required to wait.

“This polling confirms the obvious — the vast majority of Americans are not on board with the far-Left’s sexual agenda, which is seeking to permanently mutilate the young and vulnerable,” commented Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States, in a statement Friday announcing the release of the survey results.

“The idea that young people have to be 16 to drive, 18 to vote, and 21 to drink, and yet can undergo life-altering medical procedures in middle school defies common sense, and the American people see that clearly,” he added. “As the Biden administration refuses to do the right thing for our children and take action to protect them from the horrors of the far-Left agenda, it’s imperative that individual states — like what we see happening in Tennessee right now — step up and stand against it.”

The survey’s release comes amid growing pushback against efforts to advance transgenderism among young children. In Michigan, a group of Republican state representatives have introduced a bill to consider “gender transition procedures” for a child as first-degree child abuse.

And on Friday, thousands gathered at the War Memorial Plaza in Nashville outside the Tennessee State Capitol for the “Rally to End Child Mutilation,” organized by the Daily Wire and political commentator Matt Walsh. The transgender clinic at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Nashville had drawn attention after Walsh last month disclosed evidence in a series of tweets how VUMC used highly controversial tactics to steer minors toward gender transition procedures. Among Walsh’s findings was a video of clinic physician Dr. Shayne Taylor explaining how she convinced VUMC to get into the gender transition business, noting that it’s a “huge money maker,” especially because the surgeries require a lot of follow-ups.

“These surgeries are labor-intensive,” Taylor said during a 2018 lecture. “They require a lot of follow-ups. They require a lot of time, and they make money. They make money for the hospital.”

After these and other revelations came to light, the hospital announced earlier this month that they would temporarily halt transgender surgeries on minors.

Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, Republican leaders and lawmakers have been taking steps to prevent children from undergoing irreversible procedures. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill this month that prohibits the University of Oklahoma Medical Center from using COVID-19 relief funds to pay for “gender reassignment treatment” for children. Stitt also called on the state legislature to pass a ban on all irreversible gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies when it reconvenes in February. 

“We have a duty to protect minors from a lot of things,” Stitt told Fox News last week, naming drinking and getting tattoos as examples. “Their brains aren’t fully developed.” 

“[T]o think about minors, healthy children, being permanently altered either through hormone therapy or some kind of surgery, it’s not going to happen in Oklahoma,” he later added.

Pro-transgenderism advocates claim that “gender affirming” procedures save lives for those with “gender dysphoria” (GD) — the condition in which a person may feel unhappy with their biological sex, express a desire to be the opposite sex, or even insist that they are of the opposite sex. Studies, however, have found that 80% to 95% of pre-pubertal children with gender dysphoria will experience resolution by late adolescence if not exposed to social affirmation and medical intervention. 

And there is a growing movement of “detransitioners” who have been speaking out against “gender affirmation” and warning of the harms posed by the transgender agenda — as 18-year-old Chloe Cole did at Friday’s rally in Tennessee. 

“Children with gender dysphoria deserve so much better. They deserve adults who love and care for them when the world is preying on them. They deserve to just be kids,” said Cole, a self-described “former trans kid” who de-transitioned after undergoing years of puberty blockers and an irreversible double mastectomy at the age of 15. 

“As somebody who knows this process well, I feel called to educate parents on the harms that are being cast on their children — harms that ultimately led to the mutilation of my own body,” she added.

In commenting on the Convention of States Action-Trafalgar Group survey results, Dr. Jennifer Bauwens, director of the Center for Family Studies at Family Research Council, pointed out that as people get more educated about this issue, the more they will push back against efforts to direct minors toward receiving unscientifically validated practices that carry known risks and permanently change the body. 

“The vast majority of Americans are thinking clearly about this issue,” she told The Washington Stand. “There’s a lot of good education that’s gone forward and a lot of awareness that’s been brought to the issue — that this isn’t just something that’s just happening in the corner of the country somewhere; this is really widespread.”

Bauwens added, “I think the more people understand what’s really going on with the medical procedures and even the social transition, the more they’ll be opposed to it. I think logic prevails in these instances when they really see what’s going on behind the scenes and what this ideology is promoting.”

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Kenneth Chan is Director of Communications at Family Research Council and serves as an editor at The Washington Stand.

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