Report: Teens expressing regret over 'gender-affirming care' are 'going unheard' by the Biden administration
'All they really needed was a little time to grow up,' wrote Suzy Weiss
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A report published Monday argued that transgender teens speaking out against "gender-affirming care" were "going unheard" by President Joe Biden's administration amid the roll-out of its transgender policy touting the "positive effects" of such interventions.
In a Substack post headlined, "The Testosterone Hangover," Suzy Weiss, sister of Bari Weiss and a former reporter for The New York Post, described the struggles of transgender teens who underwent, and subsequently regretted, "gender-affirming care," and argued that "all they really needed was a little time to grow up" rather than rushing into the process of permanently changing their bodies.
A person holds up a flag during rally to protest the Trump administration's reported transgender proposal to narrow the definition of gender to male or female at birth, at City Hall in New York City, U.S., October 24, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Weiss began her report by describing the experiences of a teen girl named Chloe who, after undergoing a double mastectomy and years of taking puberty blockers and testosterone injections, started to have regrets about undergoing such changes.
"Chloe was the beneficiary of what transgender activists call 'gender-affirming care,' which means all the adults in her life—doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers, parents—actively supported her decision to become the person she believed she was meant to be, even if that person required an elective mastectomy in high school," Weiss wrote.
"In this, Chloe is also the poster child for the Biden administration’s recently announced transgender policy," she added, noting that White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed at a press conference earlier this month that gender-affirming care was "best practice and potentially lifesaving" for transgender children.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The point was: If trans kids weren’t able to transition, not just socially, but medically with cross sex hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries, they might well kill themselves," Weiss said of the Biden policy.
FILE - Advocates for transgender people march from the South Dakota governor's mansion to the Capitol in Pierre, S.D., on March 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves, File)
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She argued that the policy was out of step with a number of progressive countries and leading experts who were now "reversing course" because of the lack of evidence that "gender-affirming care" improved mental health outcomes for "dysphoric children."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She cited changes by the governments of Norway, Sweden, and France, as well as the opinion of Dr. Erica Anderson of the University of California San Francisco's Child and Adolescent Gender Clinic, a transgender woman who has warned about the dangers of the administration's policy.
"And then there is the growing chorus of young people, including Chloe, who had come to regret—deeply—the decisions they had made and the gender-affirming care they had received," Weiss wrote. "In the middle of this story are teenagers who are largely going unheard by a government and a medical establishment that’s plowing ahead."
"I don’t think gender affirming care helps kids like me," said Chloe. "There should be more regard to alternatives in treating dysphoria, especially when it comes to kids."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Weiss detailed the tragic stories of teens similar to Chloe who began the transition from female to male, but regretted their decisions and "detransitioned" with irreparable changes to their bodies.
NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 24: L.G.B.T. activists and their supporters rally in support of transgender people on the steps of New York City Hall, October 24, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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According to Weiss, one of the girls, Helena Kerschner, slowly realized she wasn't a boy after years of enduring guidance from non-parental adults, medication, and mental health challenges. She described the realization as "crushing and terrifying."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Another one of the girls likened Biden's policy to the practice of lobotomy, while others lamented the affirming support many adults gave them throughout the transition process.
"They just felt like they’d been rushed through this heavily medicalized funnel when all they really needed was a little time to grow up," Weiss wrote.
"No one thinks children who feel trapped in the wrong body should be forced to suffer. But there is a suspicion lurking behind many of these stories that the adults weren’t really listening to the children so much as superimposing their own politics on them," she added.