South Carolina Sen. Richard Cash, R-Powdersville, speaks in favor of a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
Here’s one of the more confusing anomalies in state laws — and in liberal woke-think. Forty-one states have laws prohibiting a practice known as female genital mutilation, or cutting, on minors, including nearly every state that is run by liberal Democrats. But only 27 states ban so-called “gender-affirming care,” including transgender surgeries, for minors. And they are all conservative-leaning states.
How can someone strongly oppose the practice of female genital mutilation — even if the under-age girl and her parents consent — yet still support transgender surgery on minors, which is arguably more invasive, disfiguring and life-altering?
Democrats lost the 2024 election in part because of their over-the-top support for gender-affirming care for minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and in some cases transgender surgery. With elections around the corner, Democrats don’t appear to have changed, though they may talk less about the issue.
But the country is changing, even if Democrats aren’t. For example, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons has become the first major medical association to recommend against permanent gender surgeries on minors. This follows the 2024 Cass Report, which found evidence for gender-affirming care for minors to be “remarkably weak.”
Another development: A detransitioning patient who had life-altering surgery as a minor recently won the first jury award of its kind — $2 million against her health care providers. And there are several similar cases moving through the courts. Most of these young people are victims of a medical system that failed them, and their stories will resonate with sympathetic juries.
Read the full article at TheHill.com