White House hosts trans-identified youth roundtable to discuss 'political attacks'

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, April 06, 2023

Trans activists and their supporters rally in support of transgenderism on the steps of New York City Hall, October 24, 2018, in New York City. The group gathered to speak out against the Trump administration's stance on there being two sexes and not innumerable genders. Last week, The New York Times reported on an unreleased administration memo that proposes a strict biological definition of sex based on biology. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The White House hosted a "Roundtable Affirming Transgender Kids" Friday in recognition of the "Transgender Day of Visibility" as part of its advocacy against "discriminatory" state laws banning sex-change surgeries for minors and state-level bans on biological males competing in women's sports.

The White House released a statement Saturday announcing that "Domestic Policy Advisor Ambassador Susan Rice and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy hosted a roundtable at the White House about the joys, hopes, and challenges that transgender children are experiencing."

"Transgender kids and their parents traveled to the White House from states that have attacked the rights of transgender kids, including Arizona, Texas, and Virginia," the statement reads.

While the White House did not specify which laws passed by the aforementioned states amount to "attacks," Arizona and Texas have passed laws requiring athletes to compete on sports teams that correspond with their biological sex instead of their gender identity.

Additionally, Arizona has banned gender transition procedures for minors, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Commissioner of Family and Protective Services Jaime Masters have issued opinions declaring such procedures as child abuse in the absence of state legislation banning them.

The White House stated that participants in the roundtable discussed the "devastating effects these political attacks are having on their mental health and wellbeing" and highlighted assertions from the families that "transgender kids can thrive when parents love and affirm their transgender children, and when transgender kids have access to the support they need at school and in their communities."

"Ambassador Rice and Dr. Murthy reiterated the Biden-Harris Administration's commitment to standing up for the rights of transgender kids and their parents, and to challenging state laws that harm transgender kids," the White House noted. "They also thanked the families for their unwavering advocacy and bravery in challenging these discriminatory laws."

Supporters of laws requiring trans-identified athletes to compete on sports teams that match their biological sex and banning gender transition procedures for minors view them as necessary to ensure fairness for biologically female athletes and prevent children from undergoing life-changing procedures that can amount to genital mutilation and sterilization.

Critics say policies that allow trans-identified biological males to compete in female athletics present fairness concerns stemming from the biological differences between men and women.

As USA Powerlifting has explained, biological males, on average, have "increased body and muscle mass, bone density, bone structure, and connective tissue" compared to their biologically female counterparts, all of which give biological males an advantage in sports.

A study published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine in December 2020 found that trans-identified males maintain an advantage over biologically female athletes even after two years of taking feminizing hormones. These concerns, combined with real-world examples of trans-identified male athletes breaking women's sports records, have prompted 20 states to pass laws that prevent trans-identified males from competing in female sports.

States that have implemented such measures are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Critics of hormonal and surgical gender transition interventions for minors with gender dysphoria have decried them as dangerous and experimental. Fourteen states have banned some or all of the procedures: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.

The American College of Pediatricians has warned that the prescription of puberty blockers, often prescribed to gender-confused youth, can include "osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility."

Cross-sex hormones can have side effects that include an "increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan." The American College of Pediatricians has also pushed back on the idea endorsed by parents at the White House roundtable that efforts to "affirm" trans-identified children enable them to "thrive."

The organization points to Oxford University's Michael Briggs' finding from an experimental trial of puberty blockers in the United Kingdom that "there was no statistically significant difference in psychosocial functioning between the group given blockers and the group given only psychological support."

Briggs' research also cited "unpublished evidence that after a year on [puberty blockers] children reported greater self-harm, and the girls also experienced more behavioral and emotional problems and expressed greater dissatisfaction with their body—so puberty blockers exacerbated gender dysphoria."

Chloe Cole, a detransitioner who once experienced gender dysphoria and has since seen her discomfort with her biological sex subside, testified that the double mastectomy performed on her at the age of 15 led to depression and a deteriorating state of mental health in a notice of intent to sue the medical professionals involved in her interventions.

Cole also found that her "distress always came back worse" after "initial relief" that occurred after "each phase of transition" even though she was "advised that the distress she experienced because of her gender dysphoria would resolve as she transitioned."

The campaign of Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis shared images highlighting the physical effects of gender transition surgeries, specifically the scars left behind from double mastectomies that remove the healthy breasts of trans-identified females as well as scars left behind from the removal of forearm tissue to create synthetic penises in girls who identify as boys.

In a recent interview on "The Daily Show," President Joe Biden described such recent measures taken up by states as "close to sinful." Last year, Biden told trans-identified activist Dylan Mulvaney that it was "wrong" for states to ban gender transition surgeries for children.

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com