Biden Directs HHS To Expand Access to Transgender Care, Including For Children

President Joe Biden will sign a “historic” executive order Wednesday ordering the Department of Health and Human Services to expand efforts to increase the ability of Americans (including children) who identify as transgender to obtain sex-change surgeries.

“President Biden believes that no one should face discrimination because of who they are or whom they love. Since President Biden took office, he has championed the rights of LGBTQI+ Americans and people around the world, accelerating the march towards full equality,” the Biden administration said in a fact sheet issued June 15.

The executive order will address the slew of Republican legislation banning transgender surgeries for minors and biological males from girls’ spaces — legislation dubbed by the Biden administration as “legislative attacks against LGBTQI+ children and families.”

It will also “crack down” on conversion therapy, which the Biden administration describes as “a discredited and dangerous practice that seeks to suppress or change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQI+ people,” ordering HHS to “explore guidance to clarify that federally-funded programs cannot offer so-called ‘conversion therapy.’”

“Over 300 anti-LGBTQI+ laws have been introduced in state legislatures over the past year, and many of them specifically target transgender children and their parents by banning access to medical care and support at school,” the Biden administration fact sheet said. “President Biden is addressing these harmful, hateful, and discriminatory attacks head-on – not only by speaking up for America’s families, but taking action to stand up to the bullies targeting LGBTQI+ people. ”

“To help support impacted families, President Biden is charging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with protecting LGBTQI+ children and families from attacks on their access to health care, and has instructed HHS to release new sample policies for states on how to expand access to comprehensive health care for LGBTQI+ patients,” the message continued.

“The President is also directing the Department of Education with addressing the impacts of state laws that target LGBTQI+ students, and has charged the department with releasing a sample school policy for achieving full inclusion for LGBTQI+ students.”

Notably, the order will specifically charge HHS to “work with states to promote expanded access to gender-affirming care.” This is included under the section “safeguarding healthcare and preventing LGGTQI+ Youth Suicide.”

Gender affirming care is a phrase used by transgender activists and media that includes the more grisly sounding transgender top and bottom surgeries, such as removing a biological women’s breasts, removing a biological man’s genitals, sculpting a fake penis on a biological woman, facial feminization or facial masculinization, and more.

Social affirmation, puberty blockers, and hormones also fall under the “gender-affirming care” umbrella.

Commentators, lawmakers, people who identify as transgender, and people who formerly attempted transitions have expressed grave concerns about encouraging children or young people to explore transitions of any kind.

A new analysis released Monday by the Heritage Foundation calls into question the widespread claim that giving puberty blockers and hormones to children who reject their biological sex prevents suicides – and grimly suggests the opposite may be true.

In a report titled “Puberty Blockers, Cross-Sex Hormones, and Youth Suicide,” the conservative think tank determined that causal conclusions being drawn between medical interventions and suicide among young people are not supported by data. The Washington-based foundation is hoping states use its findings to pursue policies strengthening parental involvement in such pivotal decisions for their children.

“The claim that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones prevent suicides is being used by the Biden administration and state policymakers to ease access to those drugs,” Jay Greene, a senior research fellow in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Wire. “As it turns out, the science behind that claim is extremely weak and when the evidence is examined properly, it shows that making cross-sex treatments more widely available risks raising youth suicide rates rather than reducing them.”

The findings, which have not yet gone through peer review, are particularly significant in light of the Biden administration’s claim that “early” interventions are “crucial” for the health of kids and teens who identify as transgender and nonbinary.  In making those claims, the Biden administration is also echoing groups like the ACLU and LGBTQ organizations like the Trevor Project.

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