Identification With and Treatment Of “Gender Dysphoria” Has Skyrocketed

  • Persistent discomfort with one’s sex, clinically diagnosed as “gender dysphoria,” was once rare in adults and rarer still in children. But now droves of children are identifying as the opposite sex, and a fierce debate rages over the best clinical approach to help them.
  • U.S. medical associations have been captured by activists. The official positions of these organizations do not necessarily represent the views of their members, and—across the world—medical professionals are pushing back.

Transgenderism Is A Major Culture War Issue

  • President Joe Biden has signaled his support of trans activists by describing state bans on medical alterations to minors’ secondary sex characteristics as being “close to sinful.”
  • Former president and 2024 Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, has signaled his support of bans on “child mutilation.”
  • As one would expect, the states where medical alterations to minors’ reproductive anatomy have been outlawed and the states where they are encouraged generally correspond with Republican and Democratic majorities, respectively.

The Left Has Vilified “Conversion Therapy”

  • In June 2022, the Biden administration issued an executive order directing his health and education departments to “promote expanded access… to gender-affirming care,” and “reduce the risk of youth exposure to so-called conversion therapy.”
  • It defines conversion therapy as efforts to “suppress or change” an individual’s “gender identity, or gender expression.” In other words, the federal government is working to eliminate therapy that affirms a child’s biology and helps the child grow comfortable with his or her biology.
  • This is a significant change. Traditionally, the aim of therapy for childhood gender distress was to help the patient accept his sexed body, not affirm his “gender identity.” 

Click HERE to read the policy focus and learn more about the current state of laws governing gender transitions