Social pressure is the No. 1 driver of gender dysphoria, and the way it is currently being treated is not working.
We don’t let young children get tattoos, smoke cigarettes, or drink alcohol, indicating that society believes they are not mature enough to make responsible decisions about these things.
We also don’t tell a child who thinks they are too tall to cut off a portion of their legs, so what person in their right mind thinks it’s okay to cut off healthy body parts or give irreversible drugs to children to treat gender dysphoria?
Texas must ban cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, chemical castration, genital- or body-altering surgeries, psychological and social transitioning, or any other gender transitioning methods applied to or performed on children.
Transgender mutilating surgeries were initiated by perverted medical professionals as a new opportunity for hospitals to offer a very profitable surgical service—not just with the initial surgery, but because these procedures create a patient for life.
We could lament the fact that this topic is even up for discussion or bemoan the horrors that children who have these treatments face for the rest of their lives, or we could rage against the institutions that have elevated their greed or ideological values at the expense of truly compassionate healthcare for these children. But instead, let’s discuss how we stop it. Full stop.
It is time to end this madness. It is time for a full-force, all-sides attack to put an end to the gender reassignment treatments of minors. To do so, we must address the issue on three fronts: revoking of licenses of doctors, setting criminal penalties for the facilitators, and prohibiting coverage by health insurance companies.
The Doctors
There is no excuse for intentionally mutilating the non-diseased, healthy genitalia or breasts of a minor. Nor is there any legitimate reason to give a gender-confused minor body-altering, sterilizing, life-wrecking hormone blockers and cross-sex hormone treatments. None. Doctors or other healthcare workers who do this should be guilty of malpractice and lose their license and other qualifications to practice medicine.
Senate Bill 250 will address this issue by prohibiting gender reassignment surgeries and other treatments of minors by physicians (except in limited, medically necessary instances), prohibiting liability insurance coverage for these treatments, and requiring the license revocation of any physician who performs these prohibited treatments.
The Facilitators
Children have limited ability to travel to doctors’ appointments or determine treatment options. They rely on the adults in their lives to advocate for them, care for them, and, ultimately, make healthcare decisions for them. That is why it is important to hold the people who are facilitating the gender reassignment treatments of minors responsible. Gender dysphoria is not a new issue, but the way it is being addressed is new. Instead of helping a child figure out why they are experiencing these feelings and helping them work through them, the treatment options have moved toward harmful hormone treatments and mutilating surgeries.
Anyone who facilitates a child’s access to gender reassignment surgeries should be held accountable. It is currently illegal in Texas to mutilate the genitalia of a female minor. Senate Bill 249 amends this statute by applying the prohibition to both genders. The penalty for assisting a minor in obtaining a gender reassignment surgery is a state jail felony.
The Health Insurance Companies
One of the reasons that gender reassignment treatments for minors, either through hormones or surgery, are becoming more prevalent is because health insurance companies offer coverage for these treatments. Unfortunately, many times, the coverage does not extend to the myriad of lifelong health complications that accompany these treatments.
That is why I have filed Senate Bill 1029, which would prohibit any public funds from being used for the purpose of transgender treatment or surgeries, would make health insurance companies that perform transgender treatments strictly liable for the care of a patient for their lifetime, and would prohibit state-funded health plans, including Medicaid and CHIP, from covering these treatments.
Together, these three bills offer a comprehensive approach to fully terminate the practice of hormone blockers, cross-sex hormone therapy, and transgender surgeries of minors in Texas. This is the best way to protect children from facing a life of regret because those who should have protected them failed to do so.
This is a commentary published with the author’s permission. If you wish to submit a commentary to Texas Scorecard, please submit your article to submission@texasscorecard.com.
