Feminist activists expose abuse, horrors of girls harmed by transgender medicalization
WASHINGTON — Radical feminists are unmasking the horrors young girls have experienced in transgender clinics in addition to exposing the abuse lesbians have endured for publicly opposing "gender identity" ideology.
Speaking at the conservative Heritage Foundation Monday, Jennifer Chavez, an attorney and board member of Women's Liberation Front, a radical feminist organization, gave voice to several heartbroken parents whose children have come to believe they are the opposite sex.
Despite their parents' objections, these children have managed to undergo hormonal treatments and surgeries that have left them mutilated and sterilized, procedures that were approved and facilitated by therapists, schools and medical institutions. Chavez explained she was telling their stories so the parents — whose identities were not disclosed — could be heard, since the mainstream media has chosen to ignore them.
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One mother was shocked when her 13-year-old announced that she was a transgender boy, even though she spurned sports and had no stereotypically masculine interests. The girl was on the autism spectrum and had a long history of not fitting in with other girls. She got the idea she was transgender from a school presentation where approximately 5 percent of the student body self-identified as nonbinary or transgender. Some of these students were taking hormones and one 16-year-old had undergone a mastectomy.
"I took her to a gender clinician seeking expert guidance. Instead, he accepted her new identity and told me I must refer to her with masculine pronouns, call her by a masculine name, and buy a binder to flatten her breasts," Chavez, reading the distressed mother's words, said.
The therapist directed the mother to put her daughter on puberty blockers and was given false assurances about their safety, telling her they were a safe way to "explore" gender. The mother was also told that if she did not comply, her daughter would be at a higher risk for suicide. Questioning a child's belief that he or she is the opposite sex is now against the law in certain states and jurisdictions where "conversion therapy" is banned, compounding her anguish, the mother elaborated.
"I have been living this nightmare for over four years and despite my best efforts, my daughter plans to medically transition when she turns 18 later this year."
This mother cannot disclose her name because of legal repercussions. She reached out to dozens of journalists and government officials for help to no avail.
"As a life-long Democrat, I am outraged by my former party and find it ironic that only conservative news outlets have reported my story without bias or censorship. We parents are ignored and vilified while our children are suffering in the guise of inclusivity and acceptance. I hope that some open-minded Democratic lawmakers will wake up to the fact that they are complicit in harms to vulnerable kids and ask themselves this question: Why are physicians medicalizing children in the name of an unproven, malleable gender identity? And why are lawmakers enshrining 'gender identity' into state and federal laws?"
Chavez followed up with a second story of another girl who decided she was a male, announcing she was trans after having spent a significant amount of time on the internet.
"Her personality changed almost overnight and she went from being a sweet, loving girl to being a foul-mouthed, hateful pansexual male," Chavez said, reading the second mom's words.
"At age 16, my daughter ran away and reported to the Department of Child Services that she felt unsafe living with me because I refused to refer to her using male pronouns or her chosen male name. Although the department investigated and found that she was well cared for, they forced me to meet with a trans-identified person to 'educate' me on these issues."
Shortly after that time, a pediatric endocrinologist taught her daughter, a minor, how to inject herself with testosterone.
"My daughter then ran away to Oregon where state law allowed her at the age of 17 without my consent or knowledge to change her name and legal gender in court and undergo a double mastectomy and a radical hysterectomy," she continued.
"My once beautiful daughter is now 19 years old, homeless, bearded, in extreme poverty, sterilized, not receiving mental health services, extremely mentally ill, and planning a radial forearm phalloplasty, a surgical procedure that removes part of her arm to construct a fake penis."
"The level of heartbreak and rage I am experiencing as a mother is indescribable," this mother said, wondering why doctors who are supposed to "do no harm" are allowed to perform surgeries on delusional children.
Chavez set the stage for these accounts by explaining that popular media programming is showcasing gender transition as fun and wonderful; the prevailing cultural narrative is that parents should celebrate it.
Prior to telling the stories of the agonized parents, Chavez played footage from a recent episode of the TLC program "I am Jazz" wherein the star of the show, teen boy Jazz Jennings, who recently surgically transitioned, celebrated the removal of his genitals with a party and a cake with an erect penis on it. In the clip, Jennings thanks guests for coming and takes a large knife to cut the penis on the cake, expressing gratitude that he will finally be rid of a body part he says he never wanted.
As audience members wiped tears from their eyes, the WoLF board member shared yet another story, this one from a mom whose daughter encountered a celebration of transgender identities at her university and announced she was nonbinary. Her parents mistakenly assumed this meant something like "bisexual."
Beset with anxiety and depression, this young girl dropped out of college, moved back home, and embraced a transgender identity, moving from "nonbinary" to claiming to be male.
But because her psychiatrist did not consider her transgender, her mother assumed she would not be able to obtain a referral for the testosterone she wanted to start taking. However, her daughter, at age 20, was able to acquire it at Planned Parenthood, bypassing her psychiatrist altogether. All that was needed was blood work, money to pay for the hormones, and her signature on a few forms saying the risks were disclosed and understood.
When her parents wrote to Planned Parenthood to explain their daughter's mental health history along with her doctor's contact information, Planned Parenthood responded with a letter saying that they presumed anyone over the age of 18 capable of giving informed consent.
"No matter what one thinks of Planned Parenthood's other services, the fact that they will instantly prescribe powerful hormones with many unknown long-term effects, especially to people with underlying mental health issues should shock the conscience. People need to know this is Planned Parenthood's new line of business," Chavez quoted the parents as saying.
The harmful effects of transgender medicine on young children were not the only subject that distressed the speakers.
In remarks that yielded enthusiastic applause, panelist Julia Beck shared how males who identify as transgender utilize their power and self-declared "gender identity" to bully and silence women who dare to state basic biological facts. Beck is a lesbian who was recently voted off the Baltimore city mayor's LGBTQ Commission for "transphobia."
When Beck used male pronouns to refer to a trans-identified male rapist who had sexually assaulted two women in a women's prison, an emergency meeting was called to assess her fitness for leadership on the commission, she said.
In what she described as a monthlong "witch hunt," the president of the Baltimore Transgender Alliance — a male who both identifies as transgender and claims to be a lesbian — accused her of bigotry against trans-identified persons.
Choking back tears, Beck explained how one of the women, who spoke the night of her questioning where the vote took place as to whether she could continue being on the LGBTQ commission, described herself.
"She had just survived a hysterectomy, [was] shaking and complaining of hot flashes. She said she was not and had never been a woman," Beck said, with her voice quavering.
"It does not make me any less of a man that I have a vulva. It's there and it's masculine, and it's a male, and it's a man," Beck said, quoting the woman.
Beck's accuser then snapped his fingers in self-righteous agreement in order to show he was an ally of the woman who claimed to have always been a man, she said. Hours went by and Beck was ultimately voted out as it was determined she was guilty of "violence," even though she had not threatened nor physically assaulted anyone.
The "T" in LBGT has largely taken over everything, she explained, and it is especially damaging to lesbians. With the proliferation of countless gender identities, lesbians are now pressured to accept males into their dating pools and their shrinking, lesbian-only spaces, she explained.
"In order to validate their gender identity, men who call themselves transwomen try to break the 'cotton ceiling,' which refers to lesbians' underwear," Beck continued.
"The completely illogical statement that 'transwomen are women' is recited like a Big Brother mantra in every leftist space. No one really believes it. But saying so will jeopardize your career, your community and your life."
A gay man said during the meeting where Beck was kicked off that biological sex was "a thing of the past."
Beyond her concerns for fellow lesbians, she went on to decry how minors are being sterilized for defying sexist stereotypes and teenage girls are breast-binding and undergoing drastic surgeries, believing that it is easier to go through life as a boy.
"And I don't blame them," she added. "Being a woman is not always fun. But the joy of sisterhood, of loving women, even as friends, is something that no doctor can supply."
"We are losing an entire generation of sisters to this madness. That's why it's personal. It's infuriating. It's devastating. And I have had enough."
