Feminist activists expose abuse, horrors of girls
harmed by transgender medicalization
By Brandon Showalter, CP Reporter| Wednesday,
January 30, 2019
Feminists speak on horrors of transgender medicine, gender
identity ideology dangers at Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. on January
28, 2019. | Screenshot: Heritage
Foundation
WASHINGTON
— Radical feminists are unmasking the horrors young girls have experienced
in transgender clinics in addition to exposing the abuse lesbians have endured
for publicly opposing "gender identity" ideology.
Speaking at the
conservative Heritage Foundation Monday, Jennifer Chavez, an attorney and board
member of Women's Liberation Front, a radical feminist organization, gave voice
to several heartbroken parents whose children have come to believe they are the
opposite sex.
Despite their parents'
objections, these children have managed to undergo hormonal treatments and
surgeries that have left them mutilated and sterilized, procedures that were
approved and facilitated by therapists, schools and medical institutions. Chavez
explained she was telling their stories so the parents — whose identities were
not disclosed — could be heard, since the mainstream media has chosen to ignore
them.
One mother was shocked
when her 13-year-old announced that she was a transgender boy, even though she
spurned sports and had no stereotypically masculine interests. The girl was on
the autism spectrum and had a long history of not fitting in with other girls.
She got the idea she was transgender from a school presentation where
approximately 5 percent of the student body self-identified as nonbinary or
transgender. Some of these students were taking hormones and one 16-year-old
had undergone a mastectomy.
"I took her to a
gender clinician seeking expert guidance. Instead, he accepted her new identity
and told me I must refer to her with masculine pronouns, call her by a
masculine name, and buy a binder to flatten her breasts," Chavez, reading
the distressed mother's words, said.
The therapist directed
the mother to put her daughter on puberty blockers and was given false
assurances about their safety, telling her they were a safe way to
"explore" gender. The mother was also told that if she did not
comply, her daughter would be at a higher risk for suicide. Questioning a
child's belief that he or she is the opposite sex is now against the law in
certain states and jurisdictions where "conversion therapy" is
banned, compounding her anguish, the mother elaborated.
"I have been living
this nightmare for over four years and despite my best efforts, my daughter
plans to medically transition when she turns 18 later this year."
This mother cannot
disclose her name because of legal repercussions. She reached out to dozens of
journalists and government officials for help to no avail.
"As a life-long
Democrat, I am outraged by my former party and find it ironic that only
conservative news outlets have reported my story without bias or censorship. We
parents are ignored and vilified while our children are suffering in the guise
of inclusivity and acceptance. I hope that some open-minded Democratic
lawmakers will wake up to the fact that they are complicit in harms to
vulnerable kids and ask themselves this question: Why are physicians
medicalizing children in the name of an unproven, malleable gender identity? And
why are lawmakers enshrining 'gender identity' into state and federal
laws?"
Chavez followed up with
a second story of another girl who decided she was a male, announcing she was
trans after having spent a significant amount of time on the internet.
"Her personality
changed almost overnight and she went from being a sweet, loving girl to being
a foul-mouthed, hateful pansexual male," Chavez said, reading the second
mom's words.
"At age 16, my
daughter ran away and reported to the Department of Child Services that she
felt unsafe living with me because I refused to refer to her using male
pronouns or her chosen male name. Although the department investigated and
found that she was well cared for, they forced me to meet with a
trans-identified person to 'educate' me on these issues."
Shortly after that time,
a pediatric endocrinologist taught her daughter, a minor, how to inject herself
with testosterone.
"My daughter then
ran away to Oregon where state law allowed her at the age of 17 without my
consent or knowledge to change her name and legal gender in court and undergo a
double mastectomy and a radical hysterectomy," she continued.
"My once beautiful
daughter is now 19 years old, homeless, bearded, in extreme poverty,
sterilized, not receiving mental health services, extremely mentally ill, and
planning a radial forearm phalloplasty, a surgical procedure that removes part
of her arm to construct a fake penis."
"The level of
heartbreak and rage I am experiencing as a mother is indescribable," this
mother said, wondering why doctors who are supposed to "do no harm"
are allowed to perform surgeries on delusional children.
Chavez set the stage for
these accounts by explaining that popular media programming is showcasing
gender transition as fun and wonderful; the prevailing cultural narrative is
that parents should celebrate it.
Prior to telling the
stories of the agonized parents, Chavez played footage from a recent episode of
the TLC program "I am Jazz" wherein the star of the show, teen boy
Jazz Jennings, who recently surgically transitioned, celebrated the removal of
his genitals with a party and a cake with an erect penis on it. In the clip,
Jennings thanks guests for coming and takes a large knife to cut the penis on
the cake, expressing gratitude that he will finally be rid of a body part he
says he never wanted.
As audience members
wiped tears from their eyes, the WoLF board member shared yet another story,
this one from a mom whose daughter encountered a celebration of transgender
identities at her university and announced she was nonbinary. Her parents
mistakenly assumed this meant something like "bisexual."
Beset with anxiety and
depression, this young girl dropped out of college, moved back home, and
embraced a transgender identity, moving from "nonbinary" to claiming
to be male.
But because her
psychiatrist did not consider her transgender, her mother assumed she would not
be able to obtain a referral for the testosterone she wanted to start taking.
However, her daughter, at age 20, was able to acquire it at Planned Parenthood,
bypassing her psychiatrist altogether. All that was needed was blood work,
money to pay for the hormones, and her signature on a few forms saying the
risks were disclosed and understood.
When her parents wrote
to Planned Parenthood to explain their daughter's mental health history along
with her doctor's contact information, Planned Parenthood responded with a
letter saying that they presumed anyone over the age of 18 capable of giving informed
consent.
"No matter what one
thinks of Planned Parenthood's other services, the fact that they will
instantly prescribe powerful hormones with many unknown long-term effects,
especially to people with underlying mental health issues should shock the
conscience. People need to know this is Planned Parenthood's new line of
business," Chavez quoted the parents as saying.
The harmful effects of
transgender medicine on young children were not the only subject that
distressed the speakers.
In remarks that yielded
enthusiastic applause, panelist Julia Beck shared how males who identify as
transgender utilize their power and self-declared "gender identity"
to bully and silence women who dare to state basic biological facts. Beck is a
lesbian who was recently voted off the Baltimore city mayor's LGBTQ Commission
for "transphobia."
When Beck used male
pronouns to refer to a trans-identified male rapist who had sexually assaulted
two women in a women's prison, an emergency meeting was called to assess her
fitness for leadership on the commission, she said.
In what she described as
a monthlong "witch hunt," the president of the Baltimore Transgender
Alliance — a male who both identifies as transgender and claims to be a lesbian
— accused her of bigotry against trans-identified persons.
Choking back tears, Beck
explained how one of the women, who spoke the night of her questioning where
the vote took place as to whether she could continue being on the LGBTQ
commission, described herself.
"She had just
survived a hysterectomy, [was] shaking and complaining of hot flashes. She said
she was not and had never been a woman," Beck said, with her voice
quavering.
"It does not make
me any less of a man that I have a vulva. It's there and it's masculine, and
it's a male, and it's a man," Beck said, quoting the woman.
Beck's accuser then
snapped his fingers in self-righteous agreement in order to show he was an ally
of the woman who claimed to have always been a man, she said. Hours went by and
Beck was ultimately voted out as it was determined she was guilty of
"violence," even though she had not threatened nor physically
assaulted anyone.
The "T" in
LBGT has largely taken over everything, she explained, and it is especially
damaging to lesbians. With the proliferation of countless gender identities,
lesbians are now pressured to accept males into their dating pools and their
shrinking, lesbian-only spaces, she explained.
"In order to
validate their gender identity, men who call themselves transwomen try to break
the 'cotton ceiling,' which refers to lesbians' underwear," Beck
continued.
"The completely
illogical statement that 'transwomen are women' is recited like a Big Brother
mantra in every leftist space. No one really believes it. But saying so will
jeopardize your career, your community and your life."
A gay man said during
the meeting where Beck was kicked off that biological sex was "a thing of
the past."
Beyond her concerns for
fellow lesbians, she went on to decry how minors are being sterilized for
defying sexist stereotypes and teenage girls are breast-binding and undergoing
drastic surgeries, believing that it is easier to go through life as a boy.
"And I don't blame
them," she added. "Being a woman is not always fun. But the joy of
sisterhood, of loving women, even as friends, is something that no doctor can
supply."
"We are losing an
entire generation of sisters to this madness. That's why it's personal. It's
infuriating. It's devastating. And I have had enough."
