On Sept. 12, six young detransitioners will be speaking in Santa Fe to help people understand the harms of gender-affirming care. Many New Mexicans do not know that in 2023, the New Mexico Legislature and Governor signed into law the requirement that public school teachers and school nurses must facilitate access to transgender (and abortion) care for children with no parental notification, no parental consent, and no age restrictions. According to law House Bill 7, teachers or school nurses who talk to children's parents about their transgender (or abortion) care can be fined $5,000 for "interfering" with access to care. The governor and progressive lawmakers are cutting parents out of these crucial decisions that can affect the rest of their children's lives.
As co-leader of the non-partisan New Mexico Freedoms Alliance, I believe that parents need to know about the medical treatments their children may receive without their knowledge. The "gender affirming care" that our state government wants to make sure kids have access to includes puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries wherein healthy body parts are permanently removed or disfigured. The medications include some that have been used to chemically castrate sex offenders. Known risks of these “gender affirming” medical treatments include sterility, heart problems, blood clots, hormone-dependent cancers, sexual dysfunction, and a lifetime of remorse.
Most of the kids who experience gender confusion suffer from anxiety, depression, trauma, learning problems, and/or social problems that make them have a hard time fitting in. They see transgenderism as a way out of their mental distress. But it doesn't work that way.
Countries such as Finland, Sweden, and the U.K. were far ahead of the U.S. in affirming gender transition for youths. All of these countries are now backtracking and changing how they handle gender confusion in children because they have seen that gender affirmation can do more harm than good. According to Finland’s top pediatric gender specialist, Dr Riitakerttu Kaltiala, four out of five kids will grow out of their gender confusion. This makes it even more critical that New Mexicans become better informed about these issues.
The National Health Service of the U.K. recently commissioned an independent review of all the evidence related to gender affirming care. The results were published in the comprehensive 388-page Cass Review, which found that gender affirming care does not reduce the risk of suicide. Although there may be an initial "honeymoon" period when gender affirming care is undertaken, in the long run it does not cure the underlying mental health issues. I think it is incredibly brave that the six detransitioners are willing to travel to Santa Fe in order to share their experiences. The NMFA is grateful to collaborate with Partners for Ethical Care on this event so that families can become better informed. Twenty-year-old Chloe Cole is one of the detransitioners who will speak; she began taking cross sex hormones and puberty blockers at age 13. At age 15, Cole had her healthy breasts removed in a double mastectomy. Only later did she realize that this was all a huge mistake stemming from sexual trauma in middle school. She now embraces her womanhood, but she will never be able to get back what was taken from her. As a result of gender affirming care, Cole suffers from sexual dysfunction and she will never be able to breastfeed if she has children of her own. Her story and the stories of the many other detransitioners matter. And the people of New Mexico deserve the right to hear them.
