UNC website scrubs links to 'Gender Equity and Wellness Initiative' for kids as young as 4

By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, May 02, 2023

Students and faculty walk through an open area outside the School of Medicine on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on August 18, 2020, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. | Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

The University of North Carolina has seemingly scrubbed multiple pages of information from its website offering transgender consultations and other so-called treatments for children as young as 4 years old.

An archived page for the UNC Department of Psychiatry’s Gender Equality Psychiatry Clinic stated that the clinic serves patients ages 4 to 30 years old who are “undergoing or exploring all forms of “gender affirming care,” an industry euphemism for chemical and surgical castration and double mastectomies for young girls, among other irreversible procedures.

However, as of Tuesday, the UNC Psychiatry site no longer serves the link for the page with “child/adolescent patient care” under its apparently defunct Gender Equality Psychiatry Clinic, which also has a broken link.

Both pages result in a “404” or “not found” message reading, “Sorry, but the page you were trying to view does not exist.”

Likewise, Google results for the psychiatry school’s “UNC Gender Diverse Programs” and “About Our Team” pages — which state the Gender Equality Psychiatry Clinic “provides gender-affirming services to children, adolescents, young adults, and families” — also resulted in broken links.

A screenshot of a page on the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine which formerly linked to a child/adolescent 'gender equality' page. — A screenshot of a page on the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine which formerly linked to a child/adolescent "gender equality" page. | Screenshot/UNC.edu

Through a student-run “gender affirming care clinic,” UNC also offers “free, culturally humble, gender-affirming care” once a month, including prescriptions for hormone therapy, letters of support for surgery, and other resources.

UNC’s Campus Health services also offer opposite-sex hormones using an informed consent protocol, meaning students are not required to present a letter from a mental health professional to begin so-called hormone therapy or other procedures, such as puberty blockers, according to the school’s website.

It was not clear whether these links were taken down or moved to another location on the UNC website.

As of Tuesday evening, The Christian Post was awaiting a response to a request for comment from UNC. This article will be updated once a response is received.

Last month, following a Democratic state lawmaker’s move to join the Republican Party, North Carolina Republicans looked to capitalize on their new supermajority with several pieces of new legislation aimed at banning sex-change procedures for minors, according to The Associated Press.

Some psychologists, including Dr. Michael J. Bailey of Northwestern University, have argued that one form of gender dysphoria, known as child onset dysphoria, may lead to some young children expressing a desire to identify as the opposite sex. According to Bailey, these children typically outgrow this confusion.

Despite Bailey's conclusion, proponents of allowing children to socially transition have questioned the validity of the research into this phenomenon, asserting that there's no need to delay a child's social transition.

In October, the United Kingdom's National Health Service proposed new guidelines for health professionals, advising them to be cautious about encouraging gender dysphoric children to socially transition by changing their names or pronouns.

The NHS warned healthcare professionals that these children might be going through a "transient phase," and it recommends taking a more watchful approach.

Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ian.giatti@christianpost.com.