For nearly 30 years, the WNBA has operated under the once-unremarkable assumption that the “W” in its name meant something. But in our enlightened, post-biological era, the Women’s National Basketball Association has found itself in a peculiar existential crisis: What, indeed, is the W?
Instead of simply stating its position, the WNBA has presented what could best be described as a masterclass in semantic evasion.
<a href="https://www.wnbpa.com/_files/ugd/8121a3_675911316ca142178932adc1e56519ac.pdf">Article XIII</a> of the league’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” Simple enough. Unfortunately, the agreement never explains what qualifies someone as a woman. Anatomy? Chromosomes? Hormone levels? Gender identity? Jar-opening ability? Throw-pillow-to-couch ratio? The league has yet to say.
And so the WNBA finds itself in the remarkable position of maintaining a women-only professional sports league while refusing to clearly define the one characteristic every player is required to possess.
Cue the mischief-makers with a point.
Former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White decided to stress-test the league’s eligibility criteria and both announced that they identify as women and intend to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft. <a href="https://x.com/EnesFreedom/status/2085772139869696032">Freedom’s</a> argument was straightforward: &#8220;If simply declaring who you are is all that’s required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WNBA.&#8221; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/yeidadprops/videos/im-transgender-im-a-woman-i-identify-as-sometimes-identifying-as-a-woman-for-pur/2473553663151419/">White</a> followed suit, announcing, &#8220;I identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purposes of basketball … so I&#8217;ll be declaring for the WNBA.”
The WNBA, understandably, would prefer not to RSVP to this particular circus. Representatives have dismissed the declarations as “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/wnba/2026/08/24/enes-kanter-wnba-draft-eligibility-royce-white/91446929007/">publicity stunts</a>” and declined to be dragged into what they see as an ideological spectacle. But dismissing the stunt doesn’t resolve the question the stunt was designed to expose.
If Freedom and White are not women for the purposes of the WNBA, then there must be some objective criterion by which the league knows that. And if such a criterion exists, it shouldn’t require Sherlock Holmes, three philosophers, and a team of lawyers to locate it.
Because definitions still matter, even when they become politically inconvenient.
This debacle is the fruit of years of indulging the “your truth” and “my truth” language so long as the consequences are mostly inconsequential. For example, your coworker’s “truth” may be that he’s a gifted singer, while the rest of the team considers his karaoke performance a violation of the Geneva Convention. Civilization continues.
But shared institutions require shared definitions and shared standards by which they are evaluated.
A society can entertain one person insisting “up is down” while another insists “down is up” right up until both approach a staircase. That is why the question popularized by Matt Walsh’s 2022 documentary “What Is a Woman?” remains so culturally explosive. The difficulty isn’t that humans spent several thousand years unable to distinguish men from women until documentary filmmakers arrived. The difficulty is that answering the question clearly forces us to confront whether biological categories describe something objectively real or whether individual identity can override them.
Freedom and White have simply transported that philosophical dispute onto a basketball court, where abstractions suddenly acquire height, weight, muscle mass, eligibility requirements, and the occasional jump shot.
The WNBA now has to decide where it plants its flag: biology or self-identification? Reality or ideology? There is no neutral position hiding comfortably between the two. If personal declaration determines who a woman is, the league needs to explain why Freedom and White don&#8217;t qualify. If biological sex determines eligibility, it needs to say so. Refusing to answer may postpone the controversy, but not the contradiction.
Of course, taking a clear position carries a cost. But the league’s reluctance reflects a broader cultural problem: definitions draw boundaries, boundaries necessarily exclude, and “exclusion” now ranks somewhere between using a plastic straw and murder in the modern American list of cardinal sins.
This is how words like “inclusion” and “tolerance” mutate into something much stranger. Instead of meaning, “I will treat you with dignity even though I disagree with you,” tolerance begins requiring everyone else to affirm your description of reality. And once institutions accept that bargain, definitions become dangerous things.
Perhaps that explains why the WNBA reportedly doesn&#8217;t want to “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/wnba/2026/08/24/enes-kanter-wnba-draft-eligibility-royce-white/91446929007/">give oxygen</a>” to Freedom and White’s stunt. But oxygen is not the problem. Reality does not suffocate when we refuse to discuss it.
The WNBA can decline the interview, ignore the stunt, avoid the politics, and leave “woman” conspicuously undefined in its eligibility rules. What it cannot do is operate a professional league exclusively for women without eventually deciding what the word means.
***
Phoenix Hayes is coauthor of “<a href="https://thewaronreality.com/">The War on Reality: Recovering Truth in a World that Celebrates Lies</a>,” alongside Frank Turek. She equips Christians to think clearly about culture and politics while defending their faith.

WNBA: AUG 23 Indiana Fever at Chicago Sky

Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes: Will A Man Be The WNBA Rookie Of The Year?

enes kanter freedom

gender identity

opinion

royce white

transgender in sports

wnba

Canada&#8217;s only WNBA franchise, the Toronto Tempo, unveiled two new official mascots this week, including a DJing snapping turtle that uses she/they pronouns.
Dot the Arctic Hare and Dez the Snapping Turtle made their debut Tuesday night during halftime of the Tempo&#8217;s game against the Indiana Fever. The timing was particularly notable because Fever star Sophie Cunningham has emerged as one of the WNBA&#8217;s most outspoken critics of biological males competing in women&#8217;s sports.
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The Tempo have officially unveiled their mascots. Yes, two!
Welcome Dez, the turtle and Dot, the hare. <a href="https://t.co/WRbSdu5vxm">pic.twitter.com/WRbSdu5vxm</a>
— Zulfi Sheikh (@zulfi_sheikh) <a href="https://x.com/zulfi_sheikh/status/2089865052757127311?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Dez and Dot have completely different personalities, but they&#8217;re better together,&#8221; said Whitney Bell, chief marketing officer for the Toronto Tempo. &#8220;One knows when to slow things down, the other knows when to turn the energy all the way up.&#8221;
According to the Tempo, Dez uses she/they pronouns and is a Borealis Blue Snapping Turtle from Muskoka, Ontario, who DJs in their spare time.
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“Leave the mascots alone!” 😭
Come behind the scenes of our Official Mascot Reveal on our YouTube channel: <a href="https://t.co/RrmRh3fg1j">https://t.co/RrmRh3fg1j</a> <a href="https://t.co/prKESxar58">pic.twitter.com/prKESxar58</a>
— Toronto Tempo (@TempoBasketball) <a href="https://x.com/TempoBasketball/status/2090848079742488675?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2026</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Their name is inspired by decibel, a nod to their love of music and role as the more measured half of the duo,&#8221; the team <a href="https://tempo.wnba.com/news/meet-the-official-tempo-mascots-dez-and-dot">said</a>. &#8220;Dez is calm, clever and always thinking a few steps ahead. A Taurus who spins the 1s and 2s in their spare time, Dez&#8217;s secret talent is snapping &#8211; they also have a particular fondness for soft shell tacos.&#8221;
The Tempo&#8217;s other new mascot, Dot, goes by she/her pronouns, loves cotton candy, and the team describes her as &#8220;the undisputed hype woman of the pair.&#8221;
Many have speculated that Dez identifies as &#8220;nonbinary,&#8221; which could be true, but the Tempo has not referred to it that way.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
WNBA team Toronto Tempo unveils new non-binary mascot with She/They pronouns.
Dez the mascot, who uses She/They pronouns, identifies as a “borealis blue” snapping turtle from Muskoka. <a href="https://t.co/i1lFdfzWPO">pic.twitter.com/i1lFdfzWPO</a>
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) <a href="https://x.com/OliLondonTV/status/2090773357751144856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The WNBA is virtue signaling so hard they&#8217;re going to break a wrist,&#8221; one social media user wrote.
LGBTQ-focused outlet Them also took notice, describing Dez as &#8220;butch&#8221; and saying the Tempo&#8217;s <a href="https://tempo.wnba.com/news/meet-the-official-tempo-mascots-dez-and-dot">press release</a> introducing the mascots &#8220;reads like a novella &#8211; a very queer novella.&#8221;
The outlet went a step further, speculating that Dez and Dot might be romantically involved. Them asked the Tempo to clarify both the mascots&#8217; relationship status and Dez&#8217;s gender identity.
A Tempo spokesperson told Them that Dez and Dot are &#8220;besties,&#8221; prompting the outlet to update its report.
Dez&#8217;s gender identity, however, remains a mystery.
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HQC1OQXWEAA6Z5w

WNBA Team’s New She/They Mascot Is A Taurus DJ Who Loves Tacos

mascot

sophie cunningham

sports

toronto tempo

Was a public school counselor in Oregon participating in hate speech when he displayed two kids&#8217; books about the gender binary? That&#8217;s what a federal appeals court ruled last month.
The court determined Roderick E. Theis II violated hate speech legislation by showcasing the books “He is He” and &#8220;She is She.” It also ruled that displaying these books, which affirm the gender binary, was not protected under the First Amendment.
In the wake of the unreasonable ruling, the books&#8217; coauthor, Ryan Bomberger, spoke to The Daily Wire about the case and the work conservative Christians must do to save the country. He didn&#8217;t hold back.
The gender binary isn&#8217;t evil
Bomberger said “He is He” and “She is She,” which he cowrote with his wife Bethany, are rooted in love.
“We wanted to take this insane pronoun issue and just make something that spoke truth about the human condition and celebrate what it means to be a boy, and celebrate what it means to be a girl,” he said. “It celebrates motherhood, fatherhood, the means by which all of us exist. So, what&#8217;s more inclusive than a book that speaks to the &#8230; heterosexual self-identity of more than 90% of Americans? How is that not inclusive?”
Bomberger rejects the idea that the books could be seen as harmful in any way. 
“The books are so beautifully illustrated. They are diverse. As someone myself, I&#8217;m mixed white, black, part Asian, part Native American. I&#8217;m a mixture of all things,” he said. “It&#8217;s laughable that the school sees these books as being hostile in any way, shape, or form.” 
The school district isn&#8217;t just being unreasonable here. It&#8217;s hypocritical. Bomberger pointed out that many of the teachers showcased BLM or LGBT propaganda, which he called “highly discriminatory against the nuclear family, against fatherhood, against black conservatives” and “anti-science,” respectively.
“What&#8217;s laughable to me is this is the same school district that pushes things like &#8216;How To Be An Anti-Racist,&#8217; which has an animus toward white people, [and says] in fact, the only way to deal with past discrimination is present discrimination,” Bomberger said. “So that book violates Oregon&#8217;s law.”
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Battling in court
The fact that a scuffle over his commonsense books made it to court, he says, was by design. Reports said Theis, who worked for the InterMountain Education Service District for over 15 years, was fired after a teacher recorded him showing the books to some eighth graders. Bomberger says that the whole situation was a setup.
“There was one complaint from a teacher who only saw the covers. This teacher never even read the books — only saw the covers and objected to the covers,” Bomberger explained. “That teacher is the one that set up the two 8th graders who came and insisted on reading the books. It was not genuine interest. It was set up. That was the teacher that actually recorded the whole interaction, where Rod allowed them because they kept pressing him to read the books.”
Bomberger expressed sorrow about the recent ruling, arguing that it will set a bad precedent in the West Coast.
“My hope is that Alliance Defending Freedom does appeal it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They have a very strong case.”
Though Theis’ appeal was rejected by the court, ADF lawyers have <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/fired-school-counselor-loses-again-after-free-speech-fight-over-gender-themed-books-his-office">promised</a> to “continue to defend Rod’s First Amendment freedom to express his views like other employees.”
Bomberger said the lower court misunderstood the case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, in which the Supreme Court ruled that public schools could not stop a football coach from kneeling midfield to say a quiet prayer.
“They said that [Kennedy’s prayer] was a private, personal thing. It wasn&#8217;t private. It was very public,” Bomberger said. “It was during his duty and his role. So simply based upon that, I think they have a case and the fact that the First Amendment doesn&#8217;t get stripped from government employees when they walk onto taxpayer-funded property.”
When woke fights back
Bomberger also argued that the recent case shows that wokism is not dead, but simply has been rebranded, hiding in the shadows while it grows stronger.
“We need to be forever vigilant about where this stuff goes,” Bomberger said. “The public school system is so deeply rooted in ideologies that are anti-American, that are anti-science, and certainly in many cases that are anti-truth. So, we have to be aware that this is not something that&#8217;s going away anytime soon.”
The Left’s goal is to fake outrage, foster ignorance, and silence dissension, Bomberger said.
“Well, honestly, we hear the phrase all the time: &#8216;Ignorance is bliss,&#8217; and apparently, it&#8217;s a goal. It&#8217;s a virtue of the woke Left,” Bomberger said. “They want to pretend that they are in some sort of fascist society where they can&#8217;t get [their favorite] books.”
While Democrats hand-wring about book bans, they don&#8217;t seem to care when librarians make explicit material available to kids.
“They&#8217;re feigning outrage about fake book banning, but [they&#8217;re fine] when it comes to completely inappropriate content for children that is sexually explicit, that is violent and violent and gory, I mean the list goes on and on,” he said. “But it&#8217;s perfectly fine if it could be categorized as a diversity book — diversity being LGBTQ/DEI.”
Bomberger ended by calling on his fellow Christians to stand up and not be afraid to speak the truth.
“The most important thing, as a Christian, I see this first and foremost as a spiritual battle, not just this book battle, but the battle for objective truth,” Bomberger said. “First of all, don&#8217;t despair. There is always hope, but we have to be vigilant. We cannot leave the major influence of our children up to &#8230; the education establishment. We can&#8217;t leave it up to Hollywood, and we often do.”
“We&#8217;re called to love every human being, not every human doing,&#8221; he added. &#8220;So as Christians, we have to see the world differently, and we have to react differently.”
***
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How This Conservative Author Is Fighting A Real Book Ban

alliance defending freedom

book bans

first amendment

ryan bomberger

Imagine you are a parent concerned about your child viewing inappropriate content. You rely on the usual parental guidelines, such as “TV-MA,” to select age-appropriate shows. But what if those apparently age-appropriate shows essentially promote gender ideology and transgenderism without any warning?
You might be forgiven for worrying that this is part of a plot to “trans the kids”—a component of a leftist agenda to undermine traditional family roles as it tills the ground for the coming neo-Marxist revolution (see, e.g., <a href="https://populistpolicy.org/the-marxist-roots-of-trans-rights/">here</a> and <a href="https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/marxism-and-the-gender-revolution">here</a>), specifically leveraging media’s influence on <a href="https://dn790007.ca.archive.org/0/items/critical-and-cultural-theories-of-mass-communication/Cultural_marxism-WhoStoleOurCulture_ByWilliamS.Lind-6.pdf">culture</a>. But such a conspiracy is certainly not required to conclude that parents should be warned about sexual orientation and gender transition themes in programming. But is this ratings system, long a tool, if an imperfect one, compelled speech or censorship?
Most parents do not realize that <a href="https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/1998/fcc98035.html">television ratings</a> warning of violence, crude or suggestive language, and sexual situations operate through a quasi-private, quasi-public system that was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1997. Through the Telecommunications Act of 1996, <a href="https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/1998/fcc98035.html">Congress authorized the FCC</a> to permit the media industry to develop a ratings framework intended to help parents make informed decisions about what their children watch. Although private media sector leaders proposed the ratings guidelines, the framework expressly depended on FCC approval, as well as input from parents, children’s advocates, and the medical community.
The original purpose of the TV Parental Guidelines was not to dictate values or control programming. <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1998-04-23/html/98-10742.htm">Section 551</a> was designed to give parents clear information about mature content so they could make decisions consistent with their own judgment and the needs of their children. To carry out that purpose, the <a href="https://www.tvguidelines.org/aboutUs.html">TV Parental Guidelines Oversight Monitoring Boar</a>d (TVOMB), composed primarily of media industry representatives and members representing children’s, medical, and educational viewpoints, proposed the ratings system that was established in 1997 and remains in place today.
Following feedback from parents, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, TVOMB added the content descriptors we know and use today. For example, TV-MA (V) indicates violence, while TV-MA (S) indicates sexual situations. TV-MA is the age-based rating, and V and S are content descriptors.
Despite all this apparent collaboration, parents seeking notice about gender identity content are frequently dismissed as unreasonable or intolerant. The <a href="https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-392A1.pdf">question</a> today is whether the existing ratings framework still provides parents with meaningful, reliable information in today’s media environment. Specifically, the FCC has sought related comments and organizations such as <a href="https://aflegal.org/press-release/america-first-legal-urges-the-fcc-to-push-childrens-tv-ratings-board-to-reform-require-clear-warnings-for-gender-ideology-and-lgbtq-themes-in-childrens-programming/">America First Legal</a> have submitted comments. While the comment period is closed, the issue deserves ongoing attention.
Certain groups <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/10522661623022/1">argue</a> that the FCC’s request for comments regarding content descriptors is an “expansion of federal supervision over how programmers describe their own expressive work.” They assert that, by requesting comments from concerned parents regarding gender-transition themes in children’s shows, the FCC is compelling speech through disclosure.
In other words, they argue that additional content descriptors informing parents that sexual orientation descriptions or discussions of gender transition appear in youth programming would amount to unconstitutional editorial categorization of expressive content because “age-based ratings and content descriptors are evaluative judgments rather than purely factual reports.”
This argument overextends its own logic. Age-based ratings and content descriptors have always required some degree of editorial judgment. Determining whether a program contains “violence,” “sexual situations,” “suggestive dialogue,” or “coarse language” is not a purely mechanical exercise; it requires classification, context, and judgment. But this has never meant the ratings system is unconstitutional, nor has it meant that every descriptor amounts to compelled editorial speech.
The better question is not whether descriptors involve judgment, but whether the government is requiring programmers to adopt a viewpoint-based characterization of protected expression. A neutral descriptor that informs parents that certain content is present in a program is different from a federally mandated label declaring content indecent.
Additional content descriptors would not ban programming, restrict viewpoints, or silence writers and producers. Broadcasters would remain free to create and air the content they choose, and families would remain free to decide what they watch. If TVOMB chooses to heed parents’ concerns, the result would simply be that parents receive more information before making those decisions.
Censorship restricts choice by suppressing speech. Transparency expands choice by allowing families to make informed decisions for themselves.
The question is not whether certain ideas should appear on television. The question is whether parents deserve clear notice when they do. If not, parents may be surprised to find their children watching “<a href="https://www.fatherly.com/entertainment/the-best-kids-shows-with-transgender-characters">The Best Kids’ TV Shows With Transgender Characters</a>.”
***
Stefan Padfield, JD, is a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a principal in its Free Enterprise Initiative. Esther Bouquet is a senior associate in the Initiative.

A young boy watching television

The Quiet Way Gender Ideology Reaches Children

DW Opinion

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Telecommunications Act of 1996

Television Oversight Monitoring Board (TVOMB)

The YMCA deleted a pledge recognizing “gender identity” as one of its priorities for inclusion after a watchdog warned that girls may be forced to share cabins with gender-confused boys at camps across the country. 
The website scrubbing took place after The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-your-childs-summer-camp-safe?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=What+Your+Child%E2%80%99s+Summer+Camp+May+Not+Be+Telling+You">reported</a> on a campaign by the American Parents Coalition urging parents to research their local YMCA’s transgender policies before sending their child to camp. YMCA camps across the country from Colorado to Michigan have policies in place allowing boys who identify as girls to stay in female cabins and use female intimate spaces. 
Before the campaign, the YMCA had a “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20260520192855/https://ds.ymca.org/aboutus">section</a> on its website that highlighted how it worked “to ensure that everyone” regardless of a variety of personal identifiers including “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” had the opportunity to “reach their full potential with dignity.”
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<div id="attachment_1126429" style="width: 2275px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1126429" class="size-full wp-image-1126429" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.22-AM.png" alt="" width="2265" height="517" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.22-AM.png 2265w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.22-AM-300x68.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.22-AM-1024x234.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.22-AM-768x175.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.22-AM-1536x351.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.22-AM-2048x467.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2265px) 100vw, 2265px" />YMCA page prior to Daily Wire report</div>
Now the words “diversity, equity, and inclusion” have been removed, as have all the references to various personal identities.
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<div id="attachment_1126431" style="width: 2071px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1126431" class="size-full wp-image-1126431" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.48-AM.png" alt="" width="2061" height="416" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.48-AM.png 2061w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.48-AM-300x61.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.48-AM-1024x207.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.48-AM-768x155.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.48-AM-1536x310.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-6.45.48-AM-2048x413.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2061px) 100vw, 2061px" />Updated YMCA page</div>
A spokesman for the YMCA told The Daily Wire that the digitial services page featuring the DEI statement &#8220;was no longer in use and expires at the end of the year&#8221; and that it reviewed &#8220;all language/content and programs&#8221; based on an executive order from the Trump administration targeting DEI. 
The spokesmean added that &#8220;we revised the language to match existing content across our other channels.&#8221;
Last year, the YMCA <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ymca-scrubs-transgender-guidance-after-parent-group-raises-alarm?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=YMCA+Scrubs+Transgender+Guidance+After+Parent+Group+Raises+Alarm">scrubbed</a> guidance from its website saying that its campers should have access to bathrooms and cabins based on their gender identities after a similar campaign from the American Parents Coalition. 
&#8220;The YMCA continues to get caught embedding gender ideology into its national infrastructure and is desperately trying to scrub the evidence and rebrand overnight. Hiding the language doesn’t erase the policies they are promoting,” Alleigh Marré, the group’s executive director, told The Daily Wire. “Parents deserve the truth, not deletions.”
Local YMCA camps still have posted “gender inclusive” policies disclosing that they will house campers based on gender identity and appear to say they will keep a child’s so-called gender identity a secret from parents. 
“If a camper shares information about their identity while at camp, we respect their privacy and autonomy,” the Sherman Lake YMCA in Michigan <a href="https://www.shermanlakeymca.org/safety-equity-at-sherman-lake-ymca">details</a> online. “We will only share this information with caregivers if the camper gives express consent, unless there is a concern related to the health or safety of the camper or others.”
Similarly in New York, Camp Gorham <a href="https://rochesterymca.org/ymca-camp-gorham-overnight-summer-camp">offers</a> “girl+” cabins as a “space for girls, trans and non-binary campers who feel most comfortable living with girls” and “Boy+ Cabins” for “boys, trans and non-binary campers who feel most comfortable living with boys.”
Marré told The Daily Wire her organization would “continue to highlight the Y for pushing an ideology that compromises fairness, privacy, and safety.”

Logo or sign for the YMCA in the downtown district

YMCA Scrubs ‘Gender Identity’ Pledge After Daily Wire Report

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

summer

transgender

YMCA

<div>America&#8217;s most powerful group of pediatricians, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), has called denying children puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries harmful.</div>
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<div>Denying a child so-called &#8220;gender-affirming care&#8221; was labeled a form of &#8220;medical neglect&#8221; and &#8220;emotional abuse&#8221; in <a href="https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/153/1/e2023064292/196236/Prohibition-of-Gender-Affirming-Care-as-a-Form-of?autologincheck=redirected">a December 2023</a> paper published in the AAP&#8217;s medical journal, Pediatrics. Parents across the country have had children <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-sends-new-guidance-to-all-50-states-on-trans-kid-disputes">removed</a> by child protective services for affirming their child’s natural sex.</div>
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<div>Buried in this <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-477/323964/20240903155151548_23-477%20tsac%20Brief%20of%20Amici%20Curiae%20AAP%20et%20al..pdf">belief</a> is an open secret: pediatricians who embrace gender ideology view parents as harming — and possibly abusing — their children if they refuse to support the child&#8217;s transition to another sex.</div>
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<div>While the AAP suggests that not affirming a child&#8217;s <a href="https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/132/1/e297/31402/Office-Based-Care-for-Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual">transgender</a> identity causes emotional and psychological <a href="https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/aap-voices/why-we-stand-up-for-transgender-children-and-teens/?srsltid=AfmBOop1hSO_tAwdoxX9YOW4JyRl7y77MgcUBAFmT1kaPzFdmk6a73l4">harm</a>, it has failed to clarify how this belief impacts parents and parental rights.</div>
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<div>The Daily Wire asked the AAP outright if it believes parents who affirm their child&#8217;s natural sex and refuse to provide so-called “gender affirming care” are abusing their children. The AAP did not respond to multiple requests for comment.</div>
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<div>Given the AAP’s extensive reach — the organization claims <a href="https://www.aap.org/en/about-the-aap/">67,000 members</a>, while there are an <a href="https://www.abp.org/dashboards/general-pediatricians-us-state-and-county-maps">estimated</a> 60,000 active pediatricians in America — its views on gender ideology and non-affirming parents impact how medicine is practiced in pediatric offices across the country.</div>
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<div>A review of the group&#8217;s public statements and policies suggests the group views parental non-affirmation of gender identity as a form of child abuse — something doctors should actively look for.</div>
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<div>&#8220;<a href="https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/lgbtq-health-and-wellness/a-pediatricians-guide-to-an-lgbtq-friendly-practice/">A Pediatrician’s Guide to an LGBTQ+ Friendly Practice</a>&#8221; gives pediatricians a road map to discover if a family “accepts” the gender identity of their “LGBTQ+” child and recommends that doctors routinely ask teens about their gender identity in private, without parental knowledge.</div>
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<div>“Normalize confidential, one-on-one discussions with adolescents and young adults as part of routine adolescent medical care,” states the guide. “Explore whether your [electronic health record] can ‘hide’ sensitive information.”</div>
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<div>The guide gives doctors a series of scripted questions to use when having confidential conversations with teens about gender identity and family dynamics, including:  ​</div>
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<div>“Identities grow and evolve over time. Do you want to talk more about your gender or sexuality today?”</div>
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<div>“Do you need support or have any questions as you navigate your gender identity, sexual orientation, or relationships?” ​</div>
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<div>“How much do your caregivers know about your identity? How does their behavior toward you/your friends reflect that? How safe do you feel at home?”</div>
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<div>Family acceptance of gender identity is viewed as a critical safety issue within several <a href="https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/132/1/198/31354/Office-Based-Care-for-Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual">AAP policies,</a> and the guide encourages doctors to ask teens, “How does your family accept and support you?”</div>
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<div>The AAP’s gender medicine <a href="https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/142/4/e20182162/37381/Ensuring-Comprehensive-Care-and-Support-for">policy</a> has an entire section devoted to the <a href="https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/gradeschool/Pages/Gender-Diverse-Transgender-Children.aspx?_gl=1*1dvwhgh*_ga*MTM0NDM4NDI5LjE3NzMxNjcwNzQ.*_ga_FD9D3XZVQQ*czE3NzU4Mjg2MjQkbzM3JGcxJHQxNzc1ODMxMjY3JGo2MCRsMCRoMA..">importance</a> of &#8220;family acceptance&#8221; and warns pediatricians to look out for families that deny their child sex-change medical interventions, saying this could raise “safety” concerns.</div>
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<div>&#8220;Some families may take issue with providers who address gender concerns or offer gender-affirming care,&#8221; states the policy. &#8220;In rare cases, a family may deny access to care that raises concerns about the youth’s welfare and safety; in those cases, additional legal or ethical support may be useful to consider.&#8221;</div>
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<div>The Family Acceptance Project (FAP), an intervention claiming to reduce &#8220;health risks&#8221; for &#8220;LGBTQ&#8221; youth by increasing family affirmation of a child&#8217;s gender identity, is listed as a resource on the AAP <a href="https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/lgbtq-health-and-wellness/?srsltid=AfmBOooX5ne3OrGOQMhAhgFhiqQ4yn4VLGpiFyAPS179O6nKlJYVd_EK">website</a>. ​</div>
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<div>The program has identified more than 50 harmful &#8220;rejecting&#8221; family behaviors and 50 &#8220;accepting&#8221; behaviors that create safety, according to its <a href="https://lgbtqfamilyacceptance.org/about/">website</a>. Harmful parental &#8220;rejecting&#8221; behaviors include not allowing children to cross-dress, not using a child&#8217;s chosen name or pronoun, and denying participation in LGBTQ support groups, <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/FAP_English-Rejection-Poster_8.5x11_2023.pdf">documents show</a>. Helpful parental &#8220;accepting&#8221; behaviors include connecting a child with an LGBTQ adult role model, using a child&#8217;s chosen pronouns, and participating in family LGBTQ support groups, <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/FAP_English-General-Acceptance-Poster_18x24_2023.pdf">documents show</a>.​</div>
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<div>The Family Acceptance Project did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.</div>
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<div>FAP&#8217;s documents were taken offline after The Daily Wire viewed them.</div>
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<div>Kurt Miceli, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Do No Harm, says pediatricians should not be pushing vulnerable kids towards medical transition.</div>
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<div>&#8220;Loving parents should not be treated as welfare risks requiring legal intervention; instead, they should be included as partners in supporting their child’s well‑being, helping their son or daughter navigate distress, and fulfilling their responsibility to protect their child from irreversible harm,&#8221; Miceli told The Daily Wire.  ​</div>
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<div>The AAP co-sponsored an event in October 2024 focused on expanding the use of &#8220;family acceptance&#8221; interventions, which try to convince skeptical parents to affirm their child&#8217;s transgender identity. Hosted by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-the-biden-administrations-speed-dating-event-for-trans-activists-and-megadonors?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=4&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Biden+Admin+Hosted+%E2%80%98Speed+Dating%E2%80%99+Event+For+Trans+Activists+With+One+Rule">Biden administration</a>, the event brought together government officials, philanthropists, and transgender activists, with the common goal of furthering the impact of gender ideology in child welfare systems. ​</div>
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<div>Biden officials viewed “family acceptance” of so-called gender identity as an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20221204062339/https://mchb.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/mchb/programs-impact/edc-parental-acceptance.pdf">important</a> step in “preventing” LGBTQI+ children from entering foster care.</div>
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<div>Representatives of the AAP were invited to take part in a special breakout session with government officials and child welfare leaders to discuss &#8220;big ideas&#8221; for the &#8220;cross-sector&#8221; promotion of family acceptance programs that re-educate parents to embrace gender ideology, records show.</div>
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<div>“We know that family support around LGBTQI+ identity, as early as possible, is a key protective factor against … entry into the child welfare and juvenile justice systems for LGBTQI+ youth,” Julie Kruse, a contracted senior advisor for the LGBTQI+ Initiatives, wrote in an <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-.pdf">email</a> describing the event. “These programs are critical to preventing LGBTQI+ youth homelessness and entry into foster care.”​</div>
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<div>The Daily Wire inquired about the AAP&#8217;s role in this event and whether it believes pediatricians should encourage parents to be re-educated through &#8220;family acceptance&#8221; programs to prevent a child from being removed from their home. The AAP did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests for comment.</div>
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<div>“The American Academy of Pediatrics claims to be a reliable guide for pediatricians and families, yet its misguided approach to children experiencing gender distress is harmful and unsupported by the evidence. Its embrace of &#8216;family acceptance&#8217; frameworks — and its promotion of the Family Acceptance Project as a community resource — only heightens these concerns,&#8221; Miceli told The Daily Wire.</div>

A girl holds the Transgender Pride flag during the pride

Is Denying ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ Child Abuse? Your Kid’s Doctor Might Think So

American Academy of Pediatrics

family

Academics who do not know what a woman is should not be the taxpayer-funded gatekeepers of women’s history. But ever since Congress authorized the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in 2020, the Smithsonian Institution has made it clear that gender ideology matters more than biological truth in its version of women’s history.
Congress’s next move on the project is to grant the Smithsonian federal land on the National Mall for the museum. In a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing last month on the subject, Congressman Tom Tiffany (R-WI) pressed a Smithsonian Institution representative with a simple question: “How can we be sure that the women celebrated in the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum are not men?”
The Smithsonian staffer dodged the question, and subcommittee members ripped the congressman for what they deemed a baseless inquiry. But the question hit the nail on the head: the Smithsonian pretends that men can be women.
While the brick-and-mortar Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum has yet to earn a permanent building, the Smithsonian’s mobile exhibits prove Rep. Tiffany correct. In its 2023 exhibit “<a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/girlhood/gallery">Girlhood: It’s Complicated</a>”, the Smithsonian exhibited <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-troubling-case-of-jazz-jennings-the-medias-first-transgender-child">Jazz Jennings</a>, a trans-identifying male reality TV star.
Jazz was <a href="https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/jazz-jennings-was-transitioned-at-2-and-had-surgery-at-17-my-new-vagina-fell-apar">socially transitioned</a> by his parents at age two, pumped with puberty blockers at eleven, and surgically mutilated at eighteen.
<div id="attachment_566557" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-566557" class="size-large wp-image-566557" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/GettyImages-1138982204-864x576.jpg" alt="BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 28: Jazz Jennings attends the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at Beverly Hills Hotel on March 28, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/GettyImages-1138982204-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/GettyImages-1138982204-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/GettyImages-1138982204-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/GettyImages-1138982204.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images</div>
Here’s what the Smithsonian has to say about Jazz:
<blockquote>For many, the rigid rules about what it means to be a girl are too small and too simple. Jazz Jennings is one of those girls. She shares her girlhood with millions of Americans on television and reminds us that girls can be assigned male at birth and that girlhood comes in many forms. Jazz always knew she “was a girl trapped inside a boy’s body.” As a toddler, she felt a roar of emotions at not being able to communicate what she was experiencing. But Jazz was lucky because her family listened, learned, and supported her.</blockquote>
First, Jazz is not a girl. He was deceived at just two years of age. Second, girls cannot be “assigned male at birth.” Girls are young human females; sex is immutable, not “assigned.” Finally, no toddler is &#8220;a girl trapped inside a boy’s body.” 
If the Smithsonian flunks a single-room exhibit, how can they be trusted with an entire building? The Smithsonian’s feature of Jazz in its “Girlhood” exhibit is flagrantly disqualifying.
The institution’s problem boils down to its own academics and advisors. On the website’s featured “Biographies: Every Woman Has a Story” page, Smithsonian-associated scholars hail men and historical “women.” First in the list is Roderick “Lavergne” Cox, a trans-identifying male actor described by the Smithsonian as “assigned male at birth,” and “the first openly transgender person nominated for an Emmy.” The Smithsonian made a distinct choice to acknowledge “Lavergne” as simultaneously male and “woman.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman?elementPosition=7&amp;row=7&amp;rowHeadline=Featured&amp;rowType=Portrait+Show+Carousel">WATCH: Matt Walsh&#8217;s groundbreaking documentary &#8220;What Is A Woman?&#8221; on DailyWire+</a></h3>
The Smithsonian also features seven other males: United States Congressman Timothy “Sarah” McBride and Biden-era Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Richard “Rachel” Levine, “the highest-ranking openly transgender government official in U.S. history,” <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/cecilia-chung">Cecilia Chung</a> (a California based advocate for sex-rejecting procedures), <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/marsha-p-johnson">Marsha P. Johnson</a>, <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/andrea-jenkins">Andrea Jenkins</a>, <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sylvia-rivera">Sylvia Rivera</a>, and <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/janet-mock">Janet Mock</a>. It is unacceptable that eight men are hailed as historical women on a taxpayer-funded “.gov” website.
<div id="attachment_1069997" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1069997" class="size-large wp-image-1069997" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2252864900-864x576.jpg" alt="Visitors outside the Smithsonian Institute's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Dec. 26, 2025. The White House is raising the pressure on the Smithsonian Institution to turn over extensive internal records as part of a broader effort to assert control over how US history is presented - and threatening to withhold congressionally authorized funding if it doesn't comply by Jan. 13. Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2252864900-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2252864900-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2252864900-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2252864900.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
If the Smithsonian Institution — with its hordes of PhD-clad ideologues — cannot acknowledge that a woman is an adult human female, it should not be trusted to narrate women’s history, especially with the taxpayer’s dime on federal soil.
The Smithsonian’s demonstrated radicalism must be top of mind as Congress works to authorize the construction of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. On March 18, the House Committee on Administration held a markup to advance the authorization, this time, however, with <a href="https://x.com/CWforA/status/2034336481561502017?s=20">an amendment</a> offered by Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) to prohibit the new museum from portraying men as women. The bill passed in committee, but Democrats uniformly voted “No.”
How ironic. Democrats care more about transgender ideology than a long-awaited women’s museum.
The Smithsonian Institution cannot be trusted with women’s history. If the Women’s History Museum goes up, Congress must do its due diligence to ensure that it operates under a strict, brazenly explicit federal authorization requiring that no male be presented as a “woman” in its exhibits — no exceptions. Better to have no museum at all than one that presents males as “women.”
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Hannah Lape is Legislative Strategist for <a href="https://concernedwomen.org/">Concerned Women for America</a>, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization. On X: @CWforA

35th Annual GLAAD Media Awards New York – Arrivals

Should Taxpayers Fund A Women’s Museum That Features Jazz Jennings?

American History

Federal Government

Girls

Smithsonian Museum

woke culture

women

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has alerted all 50 states that affirming &#8220;biological reality&#8221; does not constitute child abuse or neglect under federal law.
&#8220;We sent letters to every state reminding them that children may not be removed from their home solely because parents declined to support a child&#8217;s self-identification as the opposite sex,&#8221; said Alex Adams, the Assistant Secretary for the ACF, in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWhuT4EHHdQ&amp;t=2s">video</a> published by HHS.
&#8220;Removing a child from their home must be based on objective evidence or imminent risk of serious harm. So a state&#8217;s decision to break up a family cannot be based solely on a parent&#8217;s objection to radical gender ideology or irreversible sex rejecting medical interventions,&#8221; Adams stated.
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President Trump highlighted the importance of protecting families from being labeled as abusive for rejecting gender ideology at last week&#8217;s State of the Union <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-do-you-not-stand-the-jaw-dropping-moments-democrats-remained-seated-at-sotu?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98How+Do+You+Not+Stand%3F%E2%80%99%3A+The+Jaw-Dropping+Moments+Democrats+Remained+Seated+At+SOTU">address</a>. He told the story of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maryland-refused-to-give-back-a-virginia-runaway-because-her-parents-misgendered-her-then-she-was-sex-trafficked-mother-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sage Blair</a>, whose parents were denied custody of the Virginia teen for not affirming her transgender identity, as reported by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maryland-refused-to-give-back-a-virginia-runaway-because-her-parents-misgendered-her-then-she-was-sex-trafficked-mother-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a> in 2023.
<div>&#8220;HHS is sending a clear and unequivocal message to all 50 states about cases like that of Sage Blair, acknowledging biological reality and exercising sincerely held religious beliefs should not constitute child abuse or neglect under federal law,&#8221; Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brian Christine stated in the HHS video.</div>
Parents across the country, including <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/murdered-by-gender-ideology-mother-whose-daughter-committed-suicide-blasts-child-protective-services" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a>, <a href="https://becketfund.org/case/m-c-and-j-c-v-indiana-department-of-child-services/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana</a>, and <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2024/10/17/exclusive-gender-confused-kids-taken-non-affirming-parents-one-family-fight-son-back/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maryland</a>, have had their children taken away by child welfare services for affirming their child’s sex.
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During the State of the Union address, President Trump called for further federal action to protect families from the harms of gender ideology.
“Surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will. Who would believe that we’re even talking about it? We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately,” Trump said.
The <a href="https://acf.gov/media/press/2026/acf-defends-biological-reality-parental-rights-letter-50-states">letter</a> from the ACF appears to be an initial step in answering President Trump&#8217;s directive.
The letter reminded states that child welfare systems are supported by federal funding, noting the ACF has a &#8220;vested interest and duty in ensuring funds are used appropriately.&#8221;
&#8220;States have a duty to protect children from abuse and neglect while safeguarding parental rights and federal resources. Recently, ACF has received reports of certain states removing children from their homes because the parent disagreed with the rejection of the child’s sex, including sex-rejecting interventions,&#8221; the letter states. &#8220;States receiving federal child welfare funding are obligated to ensure that investigations and removals are grounded in objective evidence of harm or imminent risk, and that parents are afforded their full procedural and substantive rights.&#8221;
</div>
</div>
The ACF encouraged states to clearly define the terms &#8220;abuse&#8221; and &#8220;neglect,&#8221; saying these definitions should clarify that affirming a child&#8217;s sex and &#8220;refusing to condone sex-rejecting interventions&#8221; does not constitute abuse.
Several states have already taken steps to legally clarify that affirming a child’s sex is not abuse, including <a href="https://iga.in.gov/pdf-documents/124/2025/house/bills/HB1412/HB1412.06.ENRS.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana</a>, <a href="https://iga.in.gov/pdf-documents/124/2025/house/bills/HB1412/HB1412.06.ENRS.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">North Carolina</a>, and <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/resources/definitions-child-abuse-and-neglect-texas/#:~:text=Exceptions,A%20child's%20expressed%20sexual%20orientation">Texas</a>.

Trans Protest

Trump Admin Sends New Guidance To All 50 States On Trans Kid Disputes

HHS Tells All 50 States That Affirming 'Biological Reality' Is Not Child Abuse

radical gender ideology

As a lawyer who represents detransitioners like Chloe Cole in medical malpractice cases and parents fighting for the right to notice and consent before public schools may socially transition their children, I am all too familiar with how bad science gets laundered in pediatric gender medicine. For the record, a detransitioner is an individual who medically transitioned but now identifies and presents as their natal sex.
Activists take over medical associations (most notably, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health or WPATH) and use the imprimatur of those organizations to justify providing children with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and even irreversible surgeries. The unreliability of much of the medical literature on pediatric gender medicine makes the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ recent report, <a href="https://opa.hhs.gov/gender-dysphoria-report">Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices</a>, a necessary development in the field. 
Here are ten key takeaways from the review.
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Children who receive puberty blockers to keep them in a pre-pubescent state longer have marked deterioration of bone health. One-third of patients’ bone density scores exhibit osteoporosis of the hip, while one-fourth have osteoporosis of the spine. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A scientific review shows that the effect of puberty blockers on neurocognitive development is unknown, but there is “some evidence” that puberty blockers suppress children’s IQ scores. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Females who receive testosterone experience vaginal atrophy and other concerning medical symptoms, including one study showing “100% of vaginectomy specimens contained abnormal prostatic tissue growth.”</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">There is moderate and high certainty evidence of some incidence of “cardiovascular events” in women under twenty-six who received testosterone.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">If a male starts puberty blockers at Tanner Stage 2 (the initial stage of puberty) and goes on to take estrogen, he will almost always have the genitalia of a pre-pubescent or early puberty male.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A Swedish study from 2011 found that adults who had medically and surgically transitioned had 19 times the rate of suicide deaths and nearly three times the rate of all-cause mortality and inpatient psychiatric care compared to peers of the same sex and age group.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">While the precise detransition rate is not known, a British study revealed that one-fifth of patients stopped hormone treatment within five years and that half experienced detransition or regret.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">American, British, Dutch, and Swedish researchers each examined the mortality rates among trans-identified individuals relative to the general population, and while the rates varied, each study found significant increases in mortality among trans-identifying people, with the Swedish study showing that a transgender individual faced a 2.8 times higher risk of death than their age- and sex-matched peers.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The report concludes that it would be unethical to conduct a study on the effect of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones on fertility because the “mechanism [of how this treatment interferes with fertility] is well-understood” and does not have to be established in a clinical trial.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A 2025 JAMA Pediatrics study showed that between 2018 and 2022, one in one thousand (0.1%) of American seventeen-year-olds received cross-sex hormones. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is, in absolute terms, a large number of children.</li>
</ol>
The review’s key points put the risks children face when undergoing transgender medical interventions in sharp focus. Do doctors explain to their minor patients that they may experience significant negative health outcomes years or even decades in the future? When children are warned, are they mature enough to appreciate the risk of long-term consequences? Are children asked to consider the possibility that they may not identify as transgender in the future? Are children led to examine how they might feel about the interventions they received if they do indeed detransition? (My work as a lawyer in detransition cases tells me the answer to all these questions is often “no.”)
Debates about pediatric transgender interventions have largely been framed in terms of politics (what are the major parties’ stances?), law (does the Constitution permit states to prohibit transgender interventions for children?), and even philosophy (what is a woman?). But the central question we all should be asking is whether these interventions work. HHS’s exhaustive review of the medical literature makes a compelling case that the medical risk to minors posed by puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries significantly outweighs any benefits these interventions might confer.
* * *
Jesse Franklin-Murdock is the Miles Visiting Fellow at the Center for American Liberty and a counsel at Dhillon Law Group Inc., where his practice areas include political law and civil rights.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
* * *
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Diverse people holding transgender flags

Here Are My Ten Takeaways From The HHS Pediatric Gender Medicine Review

children

Gender

Puberty blockers

Teenagers

transgender surgery

Medical professionals are exploiting medical records and privacy laws to push children into transgenderism without their parents&#8217; knowledge, a watchdog organization warned Tuesday. 
A new report from Do No Harm first obtained by The Daily Wire says that parents can be kept in the dark about whether their children are undergoing transgender procedures and treatments under the guise of medical privacy. This is especially worrisome, the report notes, because the two companies responsible for the majority of electronic medical records in the United States have embraced transgender ideology.
&#8220;Confidentiality regulations are being used to hide aspects of pediatric medical transition, such as social transitioning and preferred pronouns of the child, as well as medications, from parents and guardians,&#8221; Do No Harm’s Michelle Havrilla writes.
Do No Harm says that the risk stems from hospitals interpreting federal and state health privacy laws to deny parents access to their child’s medical records once they turn 13. HIPAA — the federal law that mandates medical records be kept private — was meant to maintain parents&#8217; access to their children&#8217;s medical records. Traditionally, HIPAA has only been used to conceal minors&#8217; medical treatments from their parents in instances where it encouraged minors to seek treatment, for things like substance abuse and STDs.
Now, providers are exploiting those exceptions to hide information about transgender procedures, Do No Harm warns. 
“It appears that healthcare systems are using sexually transmitted infections, mental health concerns, and drug and alcohol exceptions to remove parental access to their child’s entire medical record – well beyond the limits of the law,” Havrilla wrote. 
At Lakeland Regional Health in Florida, parental proxy access to medical records <a href="https://www.mylrh.org/cerner-proxy/">goes away</a> at the age of 13. At age 13, the child has to call the system and authorize parental access to their medical records. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-991969" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.44.41-PM.png" alt="" width="1706" height="439" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.44.41-PM.png 1706w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.44.41-PM-300x77.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.44.41-PM-1024x264.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.44.41-PM-768x198.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.44.41-PM-1536x395.png 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px" /></div>
At the same time, companies like Epic and Oracle Health have enabled hospitals to incorporate questions about gender identity into their patient systems, Do No Harm says. Epic and Oracle control over 60% of the electronic medical record industry in the United States. 
Electronic medical records dictate “how physicians, nurses, deliver care from implementing clinical practice guidelines to methods used for billing and documentation,” Do No Harm medical director Kurt Miceli says.
Epic <a href="https://www.epic.com/epic/post/inclusive-care-transgender-patients-using-epic/">boasts</a> on its website about creating “more inclusive care for transgender patients.” It says that it has assisted its clients in incorporating “questions about patients’ preferred pronouns, sex assigned at birth, and gender identity into each patient’s chart in Epic.”
“The information a patient provides in response to these prompts can give providers a more nuanced understanding of a patient’s sex, gender identity, and healthcare needs, helping to prevent unwarranted assumptions and improve care,” Epic says. “For example, a transgender patient’s sex assigned at birth—along with the patient’s current anatomy — might inform clinical decisions, while their legal sex might be relevant to identifying them in billing workflows.”
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center <a href="https://lgbtqprimarycare.com/chapter-9/section-3-documenting-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-information/">appears</a> to use a Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity SmartForm developed by Epic, according to a screenshot posted by an LGBT advocacy group. 
The form asks a patient to fill in their gender identity and takes an organ inventory where it can be designated what genitalia the patient has or what faux genitalia have been constructed. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-991975" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.46.31-PM.png" alt="" width="1791" height="1308" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.46.31-PM.png 1791w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.46.31-PM-300x219.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.46.31-PM-789x576.png 789w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.46.31-PM-768x561.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-4.46.31-PM-1536x1122.png 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1791px) 100vw, 1791px" /></div>
Epic <a href="https://www.mychart.org/Help/proxy">notes</a> that parents using its MyChart software may not have access to their child’s records because “proxy access to a child’s account changes as they get older.&#8221;
&#8220;Because each organization has their own interpretation of federal legislation that guarantees privacy rights to adolescents, each organization determines the ages at which proxy access might become limited or removed,&#8221; the group writes.
An Epic spokesman told The Daily Wire that the company designs its software to comply with state law, and that health systems determine the format of electronic health records.
&#8220;Each healthcare organization configures Epic’s software to align with its specific needs, including compliance with state and local laws. This includes settings for proxy access and documentation in children’s medical records. These decisions are determined by each organization, not by Epic,&#8221; the spokesman said. 
Oracle also <a href="https://www.oracle.com/europe/health/continuum-care/3-ways-organizations-can-advance-gender-affirming-healthcare/">pushes</a> for “more inclusive” electronic health records and encourages organizations to “advance gender-affirming health care.” This includes the promotion of adding gender identity, “sex assigned at birth,” and pronouns to electronic health records charts.
The company also <a href="https://docs.oracle.com/en/industries/health/health-patient-portal/pp-release-notes/solution-changes-oracle-health-patient-portal-administrative-console.html">highlights</a> how 13 is the default age at which parents are restricted from viewing the vital signs and results of minor patients. 
“When a minor reaches the protected status age, an option becomes available to them from the Settings menu in the Patient Portal, and they can select what category of information they want to restrict. When a proxy tries to access restricted information, they receive an error message,” Oracle <a href="https://docs.oracle.com/en/industries/health/health-patient-portal/hppag/confidentiality.html">notes</a>. 
Other health systems that keep parents in the dark <a href="https://mychart.wellstar.org/MyChart/en-us/docs/tipsheets/MyChart_TeenGuide.pdf">include</a> Wellstar Health System in Georgia, which limits parents&#8217; access to their children&#8217;s health records after age 12. The child must authorize access for parents to get a full picture of what is going on with their health care. 
“While these institutions make a questionable attempt to be transparent with their proxy access policies, the concept of allowing a 13-year-old decision-making capacity is counter to what we understand about a developing adolescent brain,” Havrilla writes. “Adolescents simply do not have the cognitive capacity to make these difficult decisions.”
Miceli says that Do No Harm&#8217;s report is a call for both electronic health record platforms and health systems to put patients over ideology. 
“When you&#8217;re dealing with a child, it&#8217;s the child, as well as their parent or guardian who is going to help them, support them, and guide them through,” he told The Daily Wire. “That&#8217;s the key message to underscore the importance of what is truly patient centered in this regard.”
Some health systems are reportedly already surveying young patients about their &#8220;gender identities.&#8221;
Do No Harm included screenshots from a survey reportedly given to a 13-year-old emergency room patient at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.
According to screenshots, the survey included questions like “What sex were you assigned at birth, on your original birth certificate?” and “In your entire life, what, if any kind of sexual contact have you had?” with the options “Penis in vagina; Vagina on vagina; Anal; Oral; I have never had sex; I prefer not to answer.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-991979" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-12.19.13-PM.png" alt="" width="994" height="381" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-12.19.13-PM.png 994w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-12.19.13-PM-300x115.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-12.19.13-PM-768x294.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 994px) 100vw, 994px" /></div>
Parents in Oregon and Florida were asked to fill out surveys about gender identity and sexual preferences for children as young as one.
“What&#8217;s concerning is that these identity focused questions are being introduced at an age when children are developing basic sense of self awareness, prompting confusion and promoting an ideology,&#8221; Havrilla said. &#8220;A pediatric visit should prioritize medical care, not an ideological exploration.&#8221;
The push for extreme privacy has in part come from groups like the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, which <a href="https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(14)00053-6/fulltext">contends</a> that “the design, implementation, and use of [electronic health records] need to take into account the special needs of adolescents for access to health information and the vigorous protection of confidentiality.”
One of the authors of that position is Dr. Ryan Pasternak, an advocate of transgender procedures for gender-confused children. 
“Ensuring access to confidential care can be really a serious safety issue for some adolescent patients, just depending on how their parents feel about some of the behaviors that they might be engaging in,” Pasternak <a href="https://scholarlyexchange.childrensmercy.org/cme_podcast/15/">said</a> on a podcast while discussing “confidential” health care for young people. 
Instead of pushing for more restrictions on what parents can know, Do No Harm argues that states and the federal government should step in to protect parental rights and clarify medical privacy laws.
Miceli told The Daily Wire that it was important for parents to know if their child was experiencing gender confusion so they could “have the opportunity to help their child and not allow them to continue deeper and deeper into an ideology that will only result in more harm to them.”
“Regulations and laws must be enforced to stop [electronic health records] and health systems from unlawfully denying parental access and prioritize their children&#8217;s health, and allow parents to exercise their rights and responsibilities as parents for these young minors,” Miceli says.

How Doctors Exploit Privacy Laws To Push Transgenderism On Kids

gender ideology

medicine

There’s this mic-drop line in the trailer for Leonardo DiCaprio’s new film, “One Battle After Another”: “It’s not that hard, they/them.” 
When my husband and I heard it in theaters, we couldn’t help but shoot one another a look. We weren’t outraged; frankly, we were exhausted.
That zinger was clearly written to earn brownie points from a woke crowd, but it landed like a prepackaged corporate slogan. Any potential hype from the action movie trailer tanked the way an advertisement does when it tries too hard to sound like a movement.
But that’s where we’re at now. Even Hollywood trailers have a virtue-signal quota that writers type into scripts as proof that the studio has passed ideological inspections.
We’re not the only ones tired of it, apparently, since the whole notion of non-binary identities appears to be collapsing in on itself.
Sociologist Eric Kaufmann recently published data on <a href="https://x.com/epkaufm/status/1978074195767480659">X</a> that went viral, showing that the number of young people identifying as a non-binary “gender identity” — and even those identifying sexually as “queer” — has dropped dramatically.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
1/ NEW: trans identification is in free fall among the young
(h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/fire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FIRE</a> data in particular) <a href="https://t.co/i0Z1BNcWG8">pic.twitter.com/i0Z1BNcWG8</a>
— Eric Kaufmann (@epkaufm) <a href="https://twitter.com/epkaufm/status/1978074195767480659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Credit: @epkaufm/X.com
Meanwhile, heterosexual identification quietly, and unfashionably, has seen a rebound.
That’s not political backlash, however. People are fatigued by a fading trend.
For years, “gender identity” meant more than personal exploration. Frankly, it felt like a public performance. The internet made it oh-so-contagious; Hollywood made it fashionable. Then corporations made it profitable.
But the more that identity became a virtue to pander or a brand to adopt, the less authentic it felt.
I can think of no better example than actress and singer Demi Lovato, as her story shows the emotional cost better than any statistic. Her struggles were, as many child stars’ are, very public and very difficult to watch: childhood trauma, addiction, near-fatal overdoses, long stretches of recovery, and then a relapse. But in 2021, amidst all that turmoil, Lovato “came out” as non-binary and deemed her pronouns “they/them.”
At the time, she described her new identity as freeing, one that made sense. But let’s be honest, freedom built on instability isn’t lasting. By the next year, she quietly started using “she/her” pronouns again and told interviewers she had become “exhausted” by constantly explaining herself. Focus on that word. She wasn’t just fatigued by correcting strangers, she was clearly weary of trying to rebuild her life through a faulty label based on fiction.
Kaufmann’s research suggests that Lovato’s identity arc clearly mirrors what’s happening on a larger scale. The boom in “trans” and “non-binary” identifications also happened to coincide with historic spikes in depression, anxiety, and loneliness — especially during COVID-19 lockdowns. But now, as self-reported mental health appears to have improved, those identities appear to be declining.
One may not have directly caused the other, but the overlap is worth pondering. For many, that “non-binary” label could have been a survival mechanism of sorts, a way they could name their inner chaos and get it off their chest in a culture that began looking down on traditional anchors like family and even faith. And once Lovato returned to “she/her,” she signaled to the public she was in recovery. This summer, she even <a href="https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/demi-lovato-s-case-study-and-why-women-are-more-prone-to-mimetic-desire">married</a> her Canadian beau, looking absolutely stunning in a traditional white wedding dress to boot.
<div id="attachment_988273" style="width: 843px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-988273" class="size-large wp-image-988273" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2171634394-833x576.jpg" alt="HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 12: Jordan Lutes and Demi Lovato attend the Los Angeles premiere of Hulu's 'Child Star' at NeueHouse Hollywood on September 12, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)" width="833" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2171634394-833x576.jpg 833w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2171634394-300x207.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2171634394-768x531.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2171634394.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 833px) 100vw, 833px" />Kevin Winter/Getty Images</div>
Even Hollywood gets the picture that the magic is wearing off. For years, Netflix and other leading platforms turned representation into their marketing strategies. They inserted gender lessons into everything from teen dramas to children’s cartoons.
The 2021 children’s animated show “Ridley Jones,” for example, had a talking bison come out as “non-binary” and ask his grandma to use “they/them” pronouns. The show was “quietly dumped” two years later, as <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11863181/Netflix-quietly-dumps-Ridley-Jones-bison-comes-non-binary-grandma.html">Daily Mail</a> put it, once that novelty wore off.
This show, and many other forms of pandering media, are storytelling failures. Audiences don’t want to watch a sermon or get lectured. They just want entertainment, and they instinctively recognize when something that once felt radical is now conventional.
So, we’re witnessing the rise and fall of a trend cycle. A movement went viral, institutions codified it, corporations co-opted it, and then … many followers moved on. It started as “liberation,” but it became the branding du jour, which always collapses under its own fickle weight.
Between the data points, I see something hopeful happening. People are quietly rediscovering that they don’t need to reinvent themselves to feel or be whole. To them, I say, “Welcome home.”
For years, authenticity was socially measured by how fluid you were willing to be, but now it matters more how anchored you can stay in the storm. We’ve spent a decade being told that “normal” is oppressive, but normalcy is looking hotter than ever.
And maybe people won’t want to admit they were wrong — I get it. No one likes to admit they had it all mixed up. But when my husband and I heard that “mic-drop” in the movie theater, we didn’t react with cynicism. We recognized that culture has reached a point where even the symbols of rebellion have become clichés.
That’s why this new data is less like a regression and more like a release. After years of confusion, people aren’t running backward, I promise. They’re running home to simplicity and to the peace of saying, “I’m fine with being me.”
* * *
Andrea Mew is the managing editor of IW Features, the grassroots storytelling arm of Independent Women, and a contributing writer for Evie Magazine.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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London Premiere Of “One Battle After Another”

Even Hollywood Is Growing Tired Of Pronouns

cancel culture

Demi Lovato

entertainment

hollywood

Non-binary

Pronouns

Today, the Supreme Court will hear <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/chiles-v-salazar/">Chiles v. Salazar</a>, a case about censorship in private counseling conversations regarding gender identity not sanctioned by Colorado state law. The results will have a lasting influence not only counselors, parents, and children in Colorado, but throughout the United States.
I know, because our family learned the hard way when our 11-year-old daughter went to her school counselors in Wisconsin for advice. 
So many times, just being able to talk about things with someone who knows how to listen can make a life-changing difference. What our family learned, however, was that these people did not know how to listen. They were interested in making a life-changing difference, yes, but mostly in changing my daughter’s life to suit their social sensibilities, not to do what was best for her.
COVID hit at just about the same time my daughter entered into a very real personal crisis. She was 11 years old and decided she hated herself. She hated her looks, hated her personality — everything. The isolation of the epidemic left her with too much time to think about all of that and too few people to talk to about what she was feeling.
Sometimes, as a kid, it can help to know that other kids around the same age are struggling with the same issues. But our daughter was mostly alone with all her growing worries, fears, and frustrations. She didn’t know how to talk to me about what she was feeling, and she started reading about kids who were &#8220;changing&#8221; themselves. That sounded like the answer to everything: changing herself.
Looking back, she says, she doesn’t think she was really feeling that much gender dysphoria. She wasn’t especially wanting to be a boy — she just didn’t want to be herself.
That turned out to be very easy to arrange. In fact, a teacher’s aide approached my daughter and said that, if she wanted to give the people in the front office a new name and new pronouns, they’d happily take care of the paperwork.
They might have suggested that she first talk a little more with her parents about what she was feeling and give us a chance to listen and help her work through these things. But no one — not the school officials, not the doctors she eventually talked to — ever suggested anything like that.
To them, what we as her parents thought and felt was irrelevant. Our love for our child and our authority to influence her life choices didn’t matter at all. All of these strangers just assumed they knew best and had the right to keep her parents out of the conversation.
For that matter, they didn’t include our daughter much, either.
At no time did anyone at school or in the medical facilities our daughter visited ever suggest that there might be a healthy alternative to her social transitioning. They never suggested that she might just be struggling with the kinds of things lots of boys and girls have trouble with — dealing with the pains and awkward changes of puberty and the problems of fitting into a sometimes-crazy teenage culture.
That’s why my husband and I <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/tf-and-bf-v-kettle-moraine-school-district/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped">sued</a> our Wisconsin school district with the help of our attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom. As parents, we have had to really fight for what should be a given — our basic legal right to be involved in our child’s life. And — with our love and support — she had to find her own way out of the confusing jungle of emotions she was dealing with.
We’re glad she was able to do that, but we still wonder how much easier it might have been if someone with the right skills had just been there to help her find the trail — and if her school officials hadn’t tried so hard to block her from finding it.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="How Tammy&#039;s Bold Stand Saved Her Daughter from &quot;Social Transitioning&quot;" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z5le_6Qwe8o?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
That’s also why we’re so interested in another ADF client, Kaley Chiles, and <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/chiles-v-salazar/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped">her case</a> being argued before the U.S. Supreme Court today. Ms. Chiles is a counselor who wants to offer help to young people like our daughter, who are going through the kinds of things she’s been going through.
We’ve read a lot about her. She does what it seems like a counselor ought to do. She listens. She asks thoughtful questions. She helps young people figure out where they want to go and how to get there. She’s there to walk with them — not push them through a pre-chosen door or force her own ideas on their disturbed minds and hurting hearts.
To me, that’s what every young person going through what my daughter went through needs. But in Ms. Chiles’ home state of Colorado, it’s actually against the law for a counselor to help a minor that way.
My own state has a similar law. And these laws allow counselors to point the way to transitioning and encourage it, but they can’t offer an alternative or do anything to support a young person who leans toward another conclusion.
That reminds me so much of what my daughter has experienced these last few years. People — professionals — with no interest in helping her, just in changing her.
Ms. Chiles’ attorneys will be making good arguments for why that’s a terrible approach … one that can be life-changing for children and teens in all the wrong ways.
I just hope the justices know how to listen.
* * *
Tammy Fournier and her daughter reside in Wisconsin.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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When My 11-Year-Old Daughter Began Hating Herself, The School Told Her To Change Her Pronouns

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