The Biden administration is working overtime to dispel the notion that it supports sex-change surgeries for minors. Yet, it has repeatedly backed challenges to state bans targeting the procedures and worked closely with a leading organization to advance transgender medicine.
The administration announced the reversal in a statement to The New York Times Wednesday after Assistant Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services Rachel Levine came under fire for pressuring the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) — a leading authority in the field of gender medicine — to get rid of age restrictions for child sex-change procedures and hormone treatments. Further, it has supported challenges to red states, including Tennessee and Arkansas, over laws banning sex-change procedures for minors, and rolled out policies aiming to embrace transgender ideology for kids.
A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found that behind the scenes, top doctors at WPATH acknowledged, and appeared to challenge the risks of irreversible sex change procedures, exclusively obtained footage shows. Further, the organization’s top physicians acknowledged the devastating complications that could result from these medical interventions.
Unsealed court documents revealed Levine’s involvement with WPATH’s guidelines and recommendations for transgender procedures for minors.
The recently released court documents reveal an unsealed report, written by Canadian sex researcher James Cantor, that concluded WPATH saw “evidence-based” medicine as a threat to its “policy goals,” therefore opening the door for its Standards of Care Version 8 (SoC 8) guidelines to be influenced by “political pressure, litigation and legislative advocacy strategy, and the financial self-interest of WPATH members.”
WPATH initially set the age restrictions for hormone therapy at 14, for mastectomies at 15, for facials surgery and breast augmentation at 16 and for castration and hysterectomies at 17, according to its 2021 draft guidelines.
Cantor’s report further revealed internal WPATH communications showing Levine’s push for it to develop its SoC 8 guidelines in order to align with the Biden administration’s political goals. The report also shows a staff member suggesting the removal of “specific listings of ages” that could “result in devastating legislation for trans care.”
“I have just spoken to Admiral Levine today, who—as always is extremely supportive of the SOC 8, but also very eager for its release—so to ensure integration in the US health policies of the Biden government,” one WPATH member said in the emails. “So, let’s crack on with the job!!!”
The Biden administration has repeatedly touted court cases that opposed banning transgender procedures for minors. In a press release from March of 2023, the White House said it was “intervening legally when states violate the rights of transgender youth and their families.”
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed multiple statements of interest and amicus briefs supporting litigation against state laws that restrict the rights of transgender youth,” the press release said. “DOJ also filed statements of interest in support of litigation challenging laws in Arkansas and West Virginia that ban transgender children from accessing necessary health care and playing on sports teams, respectively, as unlawful.”
The White House Press Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
