Parents in Ohio lost custody of their 17-year-old teenage girl after a judge ruled that the girl should be allowed to transition to a boy.
The case is one of many that the U.S. could see, according to Ryan T. Anderson, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation and author of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment.
“At stake are not only parental rights, but the well-being of children who suffer from gender dysphoria,” Anderson said.
Transgender activists say that when a child identifies as the opposite sex in a manner that is “consistent, persistent, and insistent,” those people around the child should support the new identification.
That support includes first, changing the child’s wardrobe and giving the child a new name. The next step, Anderson says, is to give the child puberty blockers that prevent the normal process of maturation.
Then, at about 16, the child can receive cross-sex hormones, i.e. estrogen for boys and testosterone for girls.
The final step is that at age 18 the child can undergo sex-reassignment surgery.
“But the ages for each phase are getting lower,” Anderson said.
In Wales, there have been reports of a doctor prescribing cross-sex hormones to children as young as 12.
In the U.S., there are no laws to prohibit the use of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for children. There are also no regulations on the age at which they can be used.
“Starting a young child on a process of ‘social transitioning’ followed by puberty-blocking drugs was virtually unthinkable not long ago, and the treatment is still experimental,” Anderson said.
Anderson’s new book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, released this week.
Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/jax1089
Publication date: February 20, 2018
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