(Headline USA) The Biden administration released a series of documents this week endorsing gender-reassignment surgeries and hormone therapy for young children who identify as transgender.
The new guidance, titled “Gender Affirming Care and Young People,” describes “appropriate” treatments for transgender minors, which include “‘top’ surgery – to create male-typical chest shape or enhance breasts” and “‘bottom’ surgery – surgery on genitals or reproductive organs, facial feminization, or other procedures.”
“Medical and psychosocial gender affirming healthcare practices have been demonstrated to yield lower rates of adverse mental health outcomes, build self-esteem, and improve overall quality of life for transgender and gender diverse youth,” the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs said in a press release.
A different office in the HHS, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Child Traumatic Stress Network, released similar guidance as well, titled “Gender-Affirming Care is Trauma-Informed Care.”
“For transgender and nonbinary children and adolescents, early gender-affirming care is crucial to overall health and well-being as it allows the child or adolescent to focus on social transitions and can increase their confidence while navigating the healthcare system,” officials wrote in their release. “It may include evidence-based interventions such as puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones.”
The latter document goes out of its way to claim that gender reassignment procedures and hormone treatments are neither “child maltreatment nor malpractice.”
The White House also announced this week that it would celebrate a Transgender Day of Visibility by countering “dangerous anti-transgender legislative attacks,” including laws that make it illegal for a medical professional to perform a gender reassignment surgery or prescribe hormone therapy to a minor.
“Transgender Americans continue to face discrimination, harassment, and barriers to opportunity,” President Joe Biden claimed.
“In the past year, hundreds of anti-transgender bills in States were proposed across America, most of them targeting transgender kids,” Biden said. “The onslaught has continued this year. These bills are wrong.”
