CNN
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Former President Donald Trump continues to repeat his lie that US faculties are sending youngsters for gender-affirming surgical procedures with out their mother and father’ consent — although his personal presidential marketing campaign couldn’t discover a single instance of this having occurred.
Trump debuted the story in late August. It was debunked by CNN and others in early September. However Trump, whose marketing campaign has spent tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on late-campaign assault adverts associated to transgender individuals, has revived the story in October as Election Day attracts close to.
Trump made the declare once more final week whereas discussing schooling coverage throughout a New York Metropolis barbershop dialogue filmed by Fox Information: “No transgender, no operations — you realize, they take your child — there are some locations, your boy leaves for college, comes again a woman. Okay? With out parental consent.” He added, “At first, after I was informed that was truly taking place, I stated, you realize, it’s an exaggeration. No: it occurs. It occurs. There are areas the place it occurs.”
Trump didn’t title these supposed “areas.” However he made the declare as soon as extra throughout his Friday interview with outstanding podcast host Joe Rogan: “Who would wish to have — there’s so many — the transgender operations: the place they’re allowed to take your youngster when he goes to high school and switch him right into a male — to a feminine — with out parental consent.”
Information First: Trump’s declare stays false. There is no such thing as a proof that faculties in any a part of the US have despatched youngsters for gender-affirming surgical procedures with out their mother and father’ approval, or carried out unapproved gender-affirming surgical procedures on web site; none of that’s “allowed” wherever within the nation. Even within the states the place gender-affirming surgical procedure is authorized for individuals below age 18, parental consent is required earlier than a minor can bear such a process.
Trump’s marketing campaign and 4 conservative teams contacted by CNN in September about Trump’s declare had been unable to seek out any proof for it. Specialists on well being take care of transgender individuals stated the scenario Trump described merely doesn’t occur on this nation.
Landon Hughes, a postdoctoral fellow on the Harvard T.H. Chan Faculty of Public Well being and a co-author of a latest research on the prevalence of gender-affirming surgical procedure within the US, stated in a September e mail: “There aren’t any situations of kids receiving surgical procedures or entry to surgical procedures from their faculties.” Hughes added: “No supplier within the US would carry out surgical procedure on a minor below the route of a college, not to mention with out parental consent.”
“In fact every part on this assertion is fake,” Dr. Meredithe McNamara, an adolescent drugs doctor on the Yale Faculty of Drugs, stated in a September e mail. “In fact surgical procedure of any sort occurs in a certified medical heart and never in a college. In fact mother and father are the medical decision-makers for his or her youngsters, particularly relating to gender-affirming care.”
For minors, parental consent can also be required within the US for non-surgical gender-affirming medical remedies reminiscent of puberty blockers and hormone remedy. Numerous tips and requirements for medical care of transgender adolescents from entities together with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Skilled Affiliation for Transgender Well being clarify that parental consent is required.
“Any gender-affirming medical care or surgical care would legally require the consent of (each) mother and father/authorized guardians and assent of an adolescent below 18,” Dr. Laura Taylor, medical director of the gender-affirming care program on the College of Southern California, stated in a September e mail. “This consists of puberty blockers, hormones, and surgical procedure.”
There aren’t any definitive nationwide figures on the variety of minors who obtain gender-affirming surgical procedures, which embrace breast or chest procedures, typically known as “high surgical procedure,” and genital reconstructive procedures, typically known as “backside surgical procedure.” However the restricted out there knowledge makes it clear that the overwhelming majority of such surgical procedures happen amongst adults.
Taylor outlined a prolonged course of earlier than a minor would possibly bear a gender-affirming surgical procedure.
“In adolescents, the choice to begin hormones and/or have surgical procedure would occur after session with an interdisciplinary staff for a psychosocial evaluation,” she stated, the daring kind hers. “The evaluation consists of understanding the dysphoria associated to gender incongruence (the misery attributable to the bodily traits that don’t match the particular person’s identification), how lengthy it has been current, excluding different causes to account for the dysphoria, and ensuring the adolescent and household can present knowledgeable consent.”
Requested in September for any proof for Trump’s declare that faculties are secretly acquiring gender-affirming surgical procedures for kids, Trump marketing campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt offered none. As a substitute, she despatched a collection of articles on the broader debate over how faculties deal with gender identification points.
