We heard some tough talk from White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday. She had a threat for lawmakers in states around the country who want to protect their children from puberty blockers and transgender surgeries. Psaki said that the Department of Justice is ready to put them “on notice.”
While briefing the press, Psaki declared, “Alabama’s lawmakers and other legislators who are contemplating these … discriminatory bills have been put on notice by the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services that laws and policies preventing care that health care professionals recommend for transgender minors may violate the Constitution and federal law.”
Psaki, speaking on behalf of the Biden administration, made this threat to lawmakers at a time when the Alabama legislature passed a bill that would keep doctors from performing surgeries that would mutilate children. It would also prevent doctors from placing children on puberty blockers if they desire to identify as the opposite sex.
Alabama, joining other states like Texas and Florida, also passed a parental rights bill with the goal of keeping teachers from giving instruction on sexuality and gender to children in kindergarten to 5th grade.
Psaki did not address this lightly, she flat out said that these Republicans who are fighting for parental rights and the care of our children are doing something “disturbing.” She blamed it on a “cynical trend” that is attacking transgender children, and they are only doing it for political gain.
Biden’s press secretary said that in Alabama, they should be focusing on the really critical issues of today like the economy and COVID or America’s mental health crisis. But instead, they are developing laws that might put pediatricians in prison for providing what Psaki called “medically necessary, lifesaving health care for the kids they serve.”
She warned the GOP that President Biden is committed in word and deed that he will fight for all Americans and he will hold states accountable for their actions against vulnerable children.
It’s hard to imagine how the Biden administration and Psaki, in particular, can churn up such emotion when we are talking about young children having surgery or medication that will change their sexual identity.
Psaki never flinched. She boldly proclaimed that all major medical associations agree that the treatments given to these children are the “best practice” and could save children’s lives. Parents and doctors should not have to fear being imprisoned just for “helping them and loving them.”
Jesse Signal wrote about what is tragically missing from this national conversation about transgender children. He described the idea that kids grow out of their gender confusion. He cited eleven studies that show a significant number of children who have a season of gender confusion eventually outgrow that confusion.
Signal wrote, that an “Amsterdam study reported on 127 adolescents, 79 of them boys, and found that 80 of those adolescents, or about two-thirds, had desisted — that is, now identified as cisgender — at the time of the followup.
There was another study by clinical psychologist Devita Singh that found that 88% of naturally born males had desisted.
The Biden administration talks a lot about the mental health needs of children who struggle with gender confusion. But a study done by experts at the University of Washington-Seattle found that children who received puberty blockers and hormones did not have any significant improvement in their mental health. Most of the children continued to experience moderate to severe depression and they still were prone to self-harm or even suicide.
Do we really trust Psaki and the Biden administration to take control of caring for our children?
