Free Republic

WASHINGTON—In a major move against the transgender medical industry, the Federal Trade Commission hosted a workshop Wednesday in Washington, D.C., examining the dangers of so-called gender-affirming care. The FTC’s workshop, first reported by The Daily Wire in late May, has sparked the ire of leftist activists and Democrats, who argue that the focus is inappropriate. Yet the academics, commentators, detransitioners, parents, and doctors present at the workshop argued that the transgender medical industry is pushing ideology upon American children who are not able to fully consent to these life-altering procedures. “The issue of gender medicine has shattered political boundaries,” said...

The Trump administration is weighing cutting off funds to hospitals that it says provide gender-related treatments for children and teenagers, a move that would sharply escalate officials’ scrutiny of such programs. The potential for increased federal scrutiny on gender-related healthcare comes after a 30-day deadline passed Saturday for nine children’s hospitals to respond to letters from Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator and celebrity physician known as Dr. Oz. The former heart surgeon and television host demanded data related to sex-reassignment surgeries, hormone therapy and puberty blockers. “President Trump has been clear: America will protect kids...

UPMC has confirmed it will end gender-affirming care for patients 18 and younger in response to the Trump administration’s policies aimed at transgender youth. A spokesperson for UPMC, the region’s largest hospital network, said federal guidance has made it clear clinicians who provide care such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy run the risk of criminal prosecution. UPMC will continue to provide behavioral health support and other care “within the bounds of the law,” the spokesperson added. The spokesperson declined to say when care will end, but impacted families have been told June 30 is the cutoff.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti, upholding Tennessee’s ban on medical gender interventions for children, reflects a split in the Justices’ views of medicine: Is it about restoring patients’ health or satisfying their wants? The court held last week that the Tennessee law permissibly distinguished between different medical uses of puberty blockers and hormones for children. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts explained that medical treatments are defined not only by the drug used but by the purpose for which it is prescribed. Administering testosterone to a boy with delayed puberty is categorically different from...

The American Medical Association's new president Dr. Bobby Mukkamala said the ruling was "harmful government interference." The American Medical Association (AMA), the largest medical association in the United States, is coming out against the Supreme Courts ruling in United States v. Skrmetti, arguing that irreversible and damaging transgender procedures for minors are necessary treatments. “The American Medical Association is disappointed in today’s decision that opens the door to further intrusion into patient care and harmful government interference into the practice of medicine,” AMA President Dr. Bobby Mukkamala said in a statement after the ruling came down. The court ruled on...

In a total capitulation to the Trump Administration, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles announced last week that it is shutting down its notorious clinic that foisted sex change procedures on minors. The announcement marks an abrupt shift for the Children’s Hospital, which had earlier seemed inclined to fight the Trump Administration in court over its threat to cut off funding to any hospital that provides so-called gender affirming care for youths.

“Let’s keep this our little secret,” child predators sometimes tell their victims. This apparently was the attitude, too, of a Nevada official who was hiding youth “trans” castration surgeries from parents. This man was also using a loophole to get Medicaid (our tax dollars) to pay for the sexual-distortion treatments (SDTs).This time, however, the dark secret has been brought to light, by an undercover operation by O’Keefe Media Group (OMG). As that organization reported Friday (note: the official, being woke, uses the wrong pronouns to identify a cited youth):Deshaun Eli Mack, a Family Services Specialist with the Nevada DHHS [Department...

Donald Trump’s rambling speeches and stream-of-consciousness press briefings could be symptoms of his “cognitive decline,” according to one of America’s top rhetoric experts. The warning comes as Trump and his aides are seeking a congressional probe into Joe Biden’s mental state during his one-term presidency. The extent to which Biden, now 82, hid his capability has led to major questions over whether he was fit to lead the country.

Defending Education is taking parental rights to court, suing the state of Colorado over its outrageous and arguably unconstitutional new groomer law. You might remember the recently passed Colorado legislation to fund castration of “trans” kids with taxpayer dollars and in spite of parents' wishes, to mandate pro-trans policies in schools, to criminalize “deadnaming,” and to take supposed “misgendering” into account in custody cases. Defending Education, an organization that stands for parents and against woke indoctrination in schools, is suing the Democrat-run state over the extremely harmful legislation. Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Protect Kids Colorado, Do No Harm, and Dr....

A new undercover investigation by Live Action confirms just how easy it is to obtain cross-sex hormones from Planned Parenthood — even for minors. An undercover journalist posing as a 16-year-old female called Planned Parenthood facilities offering ‘transgender services’ in eight one-party consent states/territories —Minnesota, Oregon, Maine, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Colorado, and Washington, D.C. How quickly can someone get cross-sex hormones? Staff at seven of the 33 facilities contacted confirmed they would prescribe cross-sex hormones at the first appointment, even virtually. A video highlighting the undercover calls shows that at the Planned Parenthood in Mankato, Minnesota, staff...

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee grilled whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim this week over his criticism of transgender medical treatments, months after the Biden Justice Department dropped criminal charges against him. During a Wednesday hearing titled "Ending Lawfare Against Whistleblowers Who Protect Children," Haim defended his decision to leak documents to the media, revealing that Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston performed transgender medical procedures on minors through May 2023. "I wouldn't want this to be done to anyone, not even liberals, even if they're the craziest communists ever," Haim said during the hearing. "There's no one in this country who...

Democrats in CO are now pushing bill HB25-1312 which would take “misgendering” & “deadnaming” into account during custody hearings. Colorado father gagged for refusing to let his 13-year old son be sterilized. For that, Colorado courts stripped him of his parental rights - banning him from even talking to his child about gender, medical treatment, or the court case. "I haven't slept well forever... I'm afraid for my child."

Detransitioners’ lawsuits against the medical systems that hurt them could finally undo the industry’s embrace of transgenderism.Gender ideology is unraveling. It’s fraud all the way down. There is no good evidence that “transitioning” helps anyone, especially children. And people are realizing that the entire premise — that a boy can somehow be born into a female body, or vice versa — is superstitious nonsense. Indeed, transgender ideology is so insane that the coalition against it ranges from conservative Christians to lesbian feminists. Transgender ideology has many enemies, but the most effective are those who have been victimized by wrongly named...

It’s been eight years since I started to transition—and four years since I started to detransition. I realized my mistake when I was 16 years old. I’d tried to change genders before I was even a teenager... This week Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw will introduce a bill to protect kids from being forced down the dark road of gender transitioning... A huge number of US hospitals perpetrate this medical and moral monstrosity — 54, according to the medical nonprofit Do No Harm. Those hospitals gave nearly 14,000 sex-change treatments to kids between 2019 and 2023. More than 5,700 of those...

On Jan. 28, when I read the executive order from the White House: PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM CHEMICAL AND SURGICAL MUTILATION, I was shocked. Mutilation. That word, it stung. I panicked. I contacted our child’s gender clinic doctor and learned that they were already fighting to keep their doors open.

He’s been on this journey for four years. Once a week, the 17-year-old transgender boy injects testosterone into his body. He’s already frozen his eggs in case he wants to have his own biological children one day. He’s talked with his parents, his psychologist, and says he knew he was ready. For this teen, the next logical step was almost here: surgery to remove the breast tissue he was born with. “Getting this treatment isn’t fixing something that’s wrong with me,” says the teen, who lives in the Chicago suburbs and asked that his name not be used to protect...

... on current minor patients even after Trump issued an EO banning funding for "gender-affirming care" on minors. They should be stripped of their funding immediately.

California has long been the most insurrectionist of the states. Some states promised sanctuary to illegal aliens. California promises to go after law enforcement if they follow the law and cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Now California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who hopes to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, is threatening hospitals that they must ignore Trump’s executive orders and go on sterilizing kids. California Attorney General Rob Bonta today reminded California hospitals and federally-funded healthcare providers of their ongoing obligation under California anti-discrimination law to provide gender affirming care amid confusion resulting from President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget...

Following President Donald Trump’s executive order protecting children from irreversible gender procedures, hospitals across the country have started canceling appointments or ceasing their transgender programs for children.“It’s already having its intended effect — preventing children from being maimed and sterilized by adults perpetuating a radical, false claim that they can somehow change a child’s sex,” the White House said in a Monday release. “Hospitals around the country are taking action to downsize or eliminate their so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ programs.”“President Trump will always protect American children,” the White House added. “Promises made, promises kept – again.”In New York, NYU Langone Health...

Oregon Health & Science University, one of the country’s leading providers of gender-affirming care for transgender people, says it expects no interruption in those services despite a recent federal order aiming to limit such treatments — for now, at least. . . . . The institution’s Transgender Health Program provides a range of gender-affirming medical services, including hormone therapy and surgery, and serves more than 6,000 adult and pediatric patients.“As of now, nothing has changed about the care OHSU provides,” Sara Hottman, a spokesperson for the university, wrote in an email. “OHSU is evaluating the potential impacts of the executive...