On #TransgenderAwarenessWeek let’s be honest about “gender-affirming care”
NJ Governor Phil Murphy is very proud of himself. He has created a “safe haven” for the transgender community.
It’s a good time to remember that your legislators use X/Twitter for marketing. So when they pat themselves on the back, dig deeper. Political leaders and captured agencies have a habit of using your voice and your value system to manipulate beliefs, drive agenda and control behavior. It’s often confusing, because ideas with merit that are rooted in compassion can be exploited to promote cultural shifts that can ultimately be harmful.
Furthermore, many of these same people count on the fact the most people don’t read past titles and headlines. This leaves them free to represent the changes they want to make to laws and infrastructure in whatever way they want. It’s also how we end up being complicit in our own demise. By failing to see the bigger picture, we often help build the prison that we are trying to escape.
So let’s dig deeper.
Murphy credits his 326th Executive Order with “making New Jersey a safe haven for those seeking or providing gender-affirming care.” Let’s read it and see who it really protects and how.
But First, Some #TransgenderAwareness
Let’s start by acknowledging that the vast majority of people want to support all young people in their quest to achieve health and happiness. We want people to feel good in their bodies. We want people to feel accepted.
The issue is not not so much about whether we accept people, but whether we we agree that the current medical protocols that claim to support the transgender community are actually in the bests interests of the people who seek them.
If we’re really going to support and protect the transgender community, we need to provided the people who are considering “gender-affirming care” with true informed consent. If we’re genuinely interested in being equitable, we need to provide people who suffer with gender dysphoria a deeper understanding of risks and benefits around their health care decisions so they have a real opportunity to reach their wellbeing goals.
To that end, it’s important to note that not everyone believes that the indiscriminate application of gender-affirming care is a good thing. In fact, some of the doctors who have provided this care to young people have serious concerns.
In her op-ed for The Free Press, Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala laments:
Soon after our hospital began offering hormonal interventions for these patients, we began to see that the miracle we had been promised was not happening. What we were seeing was just the opposite.
The young people we were treating were not thriving. Instead, their lives were deteriorating. We thought, what is this? Because there wasn’t a hint in studies that this could happen. Sometimes the young people insisted their lives had improved and they were happier. But as a medical doctor, I could see that they were doing worse. They were withdrawing from all social activities. They were not making friends. They were not going to school. We continued to network with colleagues in different countries who said they were seeing the same things.
Not everyone who undergoes gender-affirming care is happy with the outcome.
I used to believe that I was born in the wrong body. And the adults in my life, whom I trusted, affirmed my belief. And this caused me lifelong, irreversible harm. – Chloe Cole
(You can learn more about Chloe Cole and her experience here.)
Cole is not alone. Part 4 of Reuter’s special report on Youth in Transition explains:
Many have said their gender identity remained fluid well after the start of treatment, and a third of them expressed regret about their decision to transition from the gender they were assigned at birth. Some said they avoided telling their doctors about detransitioning out of embarrassment or shame. Others said their doctors were ill-equipped to help them with the process. Most often, they talked about how transitioning did not address their mental health problems.
According to The Paradox Institute’s “Myths of Gender Affirming Care”
Studies have shown that 43-75% of adolescents with gender dysphoria have at least one type of psychiatric comorbidity. “Gender Affirming Care” ignores many of these contributing factors to gender dysphoria, such as: anxiety disorders, mood disorders, depression, eating disorders, autism spectrum disorders, dissociative identity disorders, substance abuse and childhood trauma…
Comprehensive studies show “affirmative care” is not safe and effective despite being seen by proponents as a cure to gender dysphoria…
The “affirmative care” model prescribes puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to pre-pubertal children and teenagers who are distressed about their bodies or have sex-atypical interests. 98% of adolescents on blockers will go on to take cross-sex hormones.
Puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones can compromise bone health, prevent maturation of the brain, cause infertility, deteriorate genitalia, and triple the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Puberty blockers like Lupron are the same drugs used in cancer treatment and the castration of sex offenders. Many of the effects can be permanent in children and adults.
Who does Governor Murphy’s EO326 REALLY protect?
Back to Murphy’s “safe haven.” The first 4 pages of his executive order is an elaborate virtue signal that reinforces prevailing gender ideology. According to EO 326, here are some of the ways “New Jersey seeks to address societal barriers to equality faced by the LGBTQIA+ community”:
P.L.2017, c.176 prohibits health insurers from denying or limiting coverage, or denying a claim, for services due to a covered person’s gender identity or expression or on the basis that the person is a transgender person, including any health care services related to gender transition if coverage is available for those services when not related to gender transition..
in June 2019, I was honored to support LGBTQIA+ New Jerseyans by flying the Pride flag from Drumthwacket for the first time in the State’s history…
in my first term, I was proud to sign Senate Bill No. 478 (Second Reprint), the “Babs Siperstein Law” (P.L.2018, c.58), which allows individuals to amend the gender marker on their birth certificate without having to undergo the prior law’s requirement of gender-affirmation surgery…
in March 2021, I signed Senate Bill No. 2545 (P.L.2021, c.33), establishing a “Bill of Rights” for LGBTQIA+ seniors and prohibiting long-term care facilities from engaging in discriminatory practices against residents or prospective residents based on a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, intersex status, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status… (emphasis mine – just wondering why this is here)
in December 2022, I was proud to name Allison Chris Myers as the first transgender person to serve as a Cabinet member in New Jersey history…
On page 5 we get to the details. Here are a few excerpts from order itself:
1. Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2A:160-14, no person shall be surrendered on demand of the executive authority of any other state, who: (i) is found in this State; (ii) was not present in the demanding state at the time of the commission of the alleged crime and has not fled therefrom; and (iii) is charged in the demanding state with providing, receiving, assisting in providing or receiving, seeking, or traveling to obtain gender-affirming health care services that are permitted under the laws of this State, including on any theory of vicarious, joint, several, or conspiracy liability.
2. All Executive Branch departments and agencies shall, to the fullest extent of their authority, pursue opportunities and coordinate to protect people or entities in New Jersey providing, receiving, assisting in providing or receiving, seeking, or traveling to obtain gender-affirming health care services….
5. No Executive Branch department or agency, officer, employee, appointee, or official, or any other person acting on behalf of an Executive Branch department or agency, shall: a. provide any information or expend or use time, money, facilities, property, equipment, personnel, or other resources in furtherance of any investigation or proceeding that seeks to impose civil or criminal liability or professional sanctions upon a person or entity solely for providing, receiving, assisting in providing or receiving, seeking, inquiring or responding to an inquiry about, or traveling to New Jersey to obtain gender-affirming health care services; or b. comply with a subpoena issued by another state, knowing that the subpoena seeks information solely because a person or entity provided, received, assisted in providing or receiving, sought, inquired or responded to an inquiry about, or traveled to New Jersey or another state to obtain gender-affirming health care services, except to comply with the Interstate Medical Licensing Compact, see N.J.S.A. 45:9-6.2, and the Nurse Licensure Compact, see N.J.S.A. 45:11A-9. 7 (emphasis mine)
Upon more careful examination, the executive order is largely about protecting those who provide gender-affirming care from liability. Additionally, it appears to “protect” recipients (who tend to be young people) from anyone who might be wary of such care. The EO goes as far as to prohibit personnel and agencies from cooperating with investigations, and civil and criminal proceedings.
But what happens if a young person with other mental health conditions flees to NJ to receive gender-affirming care, undergoes treatments and is harmed or lives to regret this decision? What about parents and guardians who want access to children who have been struggling and may not have the ability to make an informed decision?
Does EO326 do anything to protect people like Chole Cole in New Jersey?