A few years ago, I officially became a middle-aged dad by tearing my Achilles tendon during a casual game of pick-up basketball in the driveway. A short time later I was at the hospital, where, after a long and rather physically agonizing wait in the waiting room, the doctor gave me Tylenol and told me that I had to get an MRI and see a specialist. A week later, I had finally been officially diagnosed with a torn Achilles, at which point I was informed of all the options and the risks that accompany each option. Of course the only reasonable option was to get a surgery to repair the Achilles, but still I had to be informed that, for example, doing nothing and letting it heal on its own was a path that could be chosen, though it was certainly not recommended. I decided to go with the surgery.
This was all a pretty standard experience. And here’s what didn’t happen. I didn’t make a 22-minute video call and get approved for the surgery based on my claims alone. They didn’t give me an Achilles surgery merely because I said I wanted one. They didn’t simply take my word for it. And if the doctor had looked at the MRI and determined that my Achilles was not torn, he would not do the surgery anyway just to affirm my feeling that it was torn.
That’s not how medicine works. Unless, of course, you work in the gender transition industry.
It&#8217;s been 24-hours since we published the results of our <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-has-one-word-response-to-matt-walshs-trans-health-care-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">undercover investigation</a> into the single largest &#8220;trans healthcare&#8221; provider in the United States. The provider we&#8217;re talking about is called Plume and it operates in 41 states. It&#8217;s backed by some of the biggest insurance companies and VCs in the country. And it&#8217;s totally fraudulent.
In case you missed it the other day, after a 22-minute video call, Plume approved one of my producers for an orchiectomy — which means testicle removal. No one at Plume had seen my producer, who&#8217;s name is Gregg, before that call. They didn&#8217;t verify any of his information, which was obviously made up. They didn&#8217;t double-check the phony legal name he provided. They didn&#8217;t bat an eye when Gregg identified as &#8220;Chelsea Bussey,&#8221; and claimed to be a strong independent woman in need of immediate castration. No one at Plume thought that there was anything odd about all of this, even though Gregg made precisely zero effort to pass as a woman, and clearly had no idea what an orchiectomy would entail. Plume just rubber-stamped Gregg for testicle removal. All he had to do was send Plume $150. And in return, Plume sent Gregg a letter saying he has &#8220;gender dysphoria,&#8221; so that insurance would pay for his testicle removal, even though he repeatedly told them he didn&#8217;t have gender dysphoria. 
Let&#8217;s pause for a moment to consider one of the ironies of this whole saga, which Manhattan Institute fellow Leor Sapir pointed out the other day. The same insurance companies that will invent a fake dysphoria diagnosis for a &#8220;trans patient&#8221; will often refuse to cover healthcare for de-transitioners, on the basis that they don&#8217;t have dysphoria. In other words, if you say you&#8217;re trans, then health care providers will happily cook the books and say you have &#8220;dysphoria&#8221; when you don&#8217;t. But if you say you&#8217;re de-transitioning, and you&#8217;re not a member of the preferred class of transgenders, then insurers deny your coverage, because your &#8220;identity&#8221; now aligns with your biological sex. See how that works?
This politically motivated barbarism, which is totally incoherent, is supposedly the bleeding-edge of &#8220;trans healthcare.” You can see footage of Gregg&#8217;s call with Plume on Twitter, although fair warning — as Elon Musk said, it is disturbing. It&#8217;ll completely destroy your faith in modern &#8220;medicine,&#8221; assuming you have any faith left, which you probably shouldn&#8217;t. Here&#8217;s some of Gregg&#8217;s call:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
10/ Plume quickly scheduled Gregg for a video interview anyway. He assumed the identity &quot;Chelsea Bussey.” He didn’t even attempt to pass. He badly mispronounced the name of the surgery he wanted. He made it clear he didn&#39;t know what effect the surgery would have. <a href="https://t.co/ph8UbM3i6r">pic.twitter.com/ph8UbM3i6r</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1666496328224890880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Maybe, if you&#8217;re playing devil&#8217;s advocate as you watch that, you might be tempted to think — well, Gregg fooled them. &#8220;Plume did nothing wrong!&#8221; you might say. &#8220;They had every reason to believe that Gregg was really Chelsea Bussey. and he was really dysphoric, and there were no red flags in that call whatsoever!&#8221; 
In case you&#8217;re contemplating that position for whatever reason, I want to zoom in, CSI-style, on a particular screen grab from Gregg&#8217;s conversation with Plume. Here it is.
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-566303" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-08-at-2.54.46-PM-885x576.png" alt="" width="885" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-08-at-2.54.46-PM-885x576.png 885w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-08-at-2.54.46-PM-300x195.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-08-at-2.54.46-PM-768x500.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-08-at-2.54.46-PM.png 1438w" sizes="(max-width: 885px) 100vw, 885px" /></div>
This is the moment that Plume&#8217;s nurse told Gregg about the consequences of removing his testicles. Notice his reaction to the news that he&#8217;s about to lose his gonads. He doesn&#8217;t seem happy about it. You&#8217;d think maybe the Plume nurse would have noticed his reaction, but of course she wasn&#8217;t paying any attention whatsoever to what Gregg was doing during that call. They also didn’t care about what he directly told them, as Gregg said that he didn’t have dysphoria, and yet they wrote a letter saying he had it anyway.
And that&#8217;s striking, because it goes without saying that any reasonable and ethical health care provider would have taken one look at Gregg, and listened to him, and said, this is ridiculous. Or at the very least, a reasonable and ethical provider would have pushed back a bit against the idea that Gregg needed his testicles removed. But Plume never did. They just took Gregg&#8217;s money and sent him a letter authorizing his castration. And as we reported on Twitter, this fraud extends far beyond Plume. Several other &#8220;transgender healthcare&#8221; services that operate in nearly every state in the country, like &#8220;Folx,&#8221; are doing the same thing.
So what now? That&#8217;s always the key question after an investigation like this. What are people saying about it? Is there going to be any change, or are we all just going to move on to the next thing?
Over at Media Matters, predictably, they&#8217;re hoping you ignore our investigation entirely. One of their flacks wrote this: 
<blockquote>&#8220;If you are an adult and you want to remove your testicles it is not the job of a medical professional to stop you, and it certainly is not Matt Walsh’s job, either. This is not difficult.&#8221;</blockquote>
The principle that the Media Matters flack is outlining is, indeed, pretty simple. It&#8217;s that adults can do whatever they want. If an adult wants to carve up his testicles, then that&#8217;s his right. The problem with that analysis from the Media Matters drone, of course, is that, first of all, it’s depraved and insane. Any moral person would not stand by while someone else butchers themselves. If you saw someone about to stab himself in the stomach, or cut off his own hand, or his testicles, you wouldn’t sit there and say, “Well, adults have the right to do what they want.” 
Instead you would intervene, realizing that this person is in deep psychological distress, and must be stopped for their own good. “Rights” have nothing to do with it. But this is irrelevant, anyway, because patients don&#8217;t remove their own testicles. Doctors remove patients&#8217; testicles. And in the process, these doctors claim to have a medical basis for the procedure, which we have now proven to be a total lie. These doctors cite standards of care that we&#8217;ve proven are fraudulent. It’s not a doctor’s job to perform whatever surgery a patient happens to ask for. They&#8217;re supposed to adhere to some standards, they’re supposed to use sound medical judgment, and none of that is happening.
That doesn&#8217;t concern the hacks at Media Matters, but it does concern actual doctors. For example, Mary Talley Bowden, who completed her residency at Stanford and now runs her own private practice called Breathe MD, told us:
<blockquote>&#8220;Every treatment recommendation from a physician requires a discussion of risks versus benefits, and typically, the higher the risk, the more extensive the discussion. Orchiectomy requires general anesthesia and like any surgery could result in hemorrhage, infection or death… not to mention devastating psychological injury should the patient have a change of heart. It is not appropriate to declare someone fit for surgery &#8211; especially one this major &#8211; over a 22 minute zoom call with a nurse.&#8221;</blockquote>
None of those complications came up in Gregg&#8217;s conversation with Plume. They didn&#8217;t warn him of any complications, in fact. And that&#8217;s crazy because, as Bowden told us, Telehealth is, &#8220;Appropriate for minor health problems and low risk treatments.&#8221; By contrast, orchiectomy is not a low-risk treatment. It often takes days to approve.
Greg J. Marchand, a surgeon and OB/GYN, was also horrified by what Plume did. Here&#8217;s what he told us:
<blockquote>“Informed consent is a critical and essential part of surgery. In the absence of an emergency, it is extremely important that the surgeon or their representatives assure that the patient is completely aware of the nature of the procedure being performed, the likely sequela, and the risks, benefits and alternatives. A life altering decision, such as permanent castration has serious, irreversible consequences. The fact that a medical institution was willing to undertake this surgery only 22 minutes after the “patient” requested this procedure is an unforgivable departure from the standard of care in any city in the United States.&#8221;</blockquote>
Marchand continued:
<blockquote>&#8220;At a very minimum, a person undergoing castration should have been alerted of the long and short term changes following castration, including hormonal changes, changes to cardiovascular risk, and changes to fertility and sexual function. Instead this patient found a user-friendly interface they could “click through” to get the surgery covered even though they had just decided they no longer wanted their testicles. There was none of the extensive psychological or psychiatric counseling that should have accompanied any permanent surgical procedure for “gender affirmation.” I don’t see medicine here, this is clearly the tool of a political agenda aimed at mainstreaming so-called “gender affirming” surgery in order to achieve a political goal. I’m frankly terrified for any patients who have previously been through this process and are certainly at high risk for regret after their surgeries.&#8221;</blockquote>
That&#8217;s the consensus from every serious medical expert we&#8217;ve spoken to. After our investigation was published yesterday, we scoured news reports and social media for any contrary opinions from credible people, and we couldn&#8217;t find any.
So the question is: If these &#8220;trans Telehealth services&#8221; are so obviously fraudulent, what can we do about them? What&#8217;s going to happen that will shut this down and save thousands of patients from this butchery?
As of today, we haven&#8217;t heard anything from Aetna, Cigna, or United Health, which are the three providers that work with Plume. That&#8217;s strange when you think about it. Anyone who pays into insurance plans from any of those companies is funding these fraudulent surgeries. You&#8217;d think that would prompt some kind of response. After all, the more these insurers have to pay for nonsense operations, the more they have to raise the cost of other operations that are actually necessary from a medical perspective. But these companies, as of now, don&#8217;t appear to care about any of that.
We also haven&#8217;t heard anything from Craft Ventures, David Sacks, or the other investors in Plume and Folx.
We&#8217;ve reached out to the attorneys general of the states where this fraud is happening, including in Tennessee. Here&#8217;s what Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti had to say:
<blockquote>“There is no political exception to health care fraud. If any health care providers are cutting corners at the expense of patients and state funds, whether it’s in pursuit of profit or ideology, we want to know about it.&#8221;</blockquote>
Senator Marsha Blackburn issued the following statement:
<blockquote>“It is incomprehensible that some health care providers are potentially breaking the law to mislead vulnerable patients and fast-track irreversible procedures. This isn’t health care — it’s forcing an ideological agenda.&#8221;</blockquote>
We have received some responses from other key officials. Jack Johnson, the senate majority leader in Tennessee —where both Plume and Folx operate — issued this statement: 
<blockquote>&#8220;Another disgusting attempt to label the mutilation of children as &#8220;healthcare&#8221;. I appreciate Matt Walsh for exposing this deranged behavior. This is a real battle, and it is a battle we will win.&#8221; </blockquote>
Tennessee state Rep. William Lamberth endorsed that post on social media.
Officials in other states have already responded as well. In Utah, the attorney general&#8217;s office has issued a statement calling the reports troubling and saying they make it a priority to investigate this kind of fraud.
At the federal level, Representative Lisa McClain of Michigan is the Chair of the Healthcare and Financial Services Committee in Congress. She provided this statement: 
<blockquote>“Only in a country that’s lost its soul can major sex-change surgeries be expedited like buying a fast-pass at a theme park. This is utterly disgusting, and we cannot continue down this path of insanity. It’s time America wakes up to reality and casts away progressive ideology that is literally putting people’s lives at risk.”</blockquote>
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin issued this statement, which was somewhat ambiguous:
<blockquote>“Telehealth providers operating in Arkansas must, of course, follow our laws, and I stand ready to ensure the law is followed.”</blockquote>
It&#8217;s not clear exactly what Griffin is waiting to see, or what he&#8217;s going to do to make sure that &#8220;trans Telehealth&#8221; providers will abide by the law. We have a lot of evidence that these Telehealth providers are operating in Arkansas and ripping off insurance companies in the process. Hopefully Griffin will look into that. After all, it&#8217;s his job.
Overall, it&#8217;s been only 24 hours since our investigation was published and we are already getting responses from officials who have the power to do something about it. This is what matters to us. We do not chase down these stories and publish them just for the sake of having viral content. We intend to get results and hold people accountable. 
What we know for sure is that corporate media will continue to ignore this story. They don&#8217;t want you to hear about the scam that is &#8220;trans healthcare.&#8221; The same media outlets that lined up to condemn ivermectin are telling you that there&#8217;s nothing to see here. But the truth is, this isn&#8217;t up to them. Insurance companies are getting ripped off, which means that everyone paying into these insurance plans is getting ripped off. Investors have been lied to, which means they can pull their funding at any moment. And several states now have more than enough justification to issue subpoenas to these &#8220;Telehealth&#8221; providers, to see just how fraudulent their operations really are. 
If that happens, a lot of people could be spared gruesome surgeries that are totally unnecessary from any conceivable medical perspective. That&#8217;s what&#8217;s at stake. That&#8217;s the whole reason we&#8217;re covering any of this. All it takes now is for our political leaders to act on what we&#8217;ve uncovered.

Matt Walsh

If You Say You’re Trans, Health Care Providers Will Happily Cook The Books

Gender

Health Care

Readers Pass

transgender surgery

Twitter

The bizarre, testicle removal surgery at the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-walsh-undercover-investigation-catches-trans-health-care-providers-falsifying-patient-info-to-fast-track-sex-change-surgeries" target="_blank" rel="noopener">center of a Daily Wire investigation</a> made news a year ago, when a report revealed an underground clinic in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/washington" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Washington</a> where two transgender-identifying activists specialized in combining the procedure with firearms training.
Over a decade ago, orchiectomy, a procedure used sometimes in cases of testicular cancer, used to be more difficult to obtain for men who identified as women, reportedly leading them to turn to underground clinics to have their <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/transgender-surgery" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testicles removed</a>. 
Today, the procedure is easy to schedule. According to a new report from Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, a gender-confused man looking to have the procedure can get cleared for the surgery in less than 30 minutes. Gregg Re, a producer for Walsh, got approval for the procedure after just a 22-minute virtual appointment with Plume, the largest transgender healthcare provider in the U.S. 
The procedure can be associated with increased mental health problems, including anxiety, <a href="https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Health/aftercareinformation/pages/conditions.aspx?hwid=ud1352#:~:text=It%20is%20common%20to%20feel,other%20resources%20that%20can%20help." target="_blank" rel="noopener">depression</a>, and <a href="https://www.urotoday.com/library-resources/a-patient-journey/129050-testicular-cancer-awareness-month-a-focus-on-implications-of-mental-health-among-testicular-cancer-survivors.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stress</a>. 
The ease of approval today presents a stark contrast with the past when the procedure was more restricted, and radical transgender activists paired crude surgical techniques with gun training. 
According to a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trans-history-underground-sugical-clinic-b2114777.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report in the Independent</a> from July 2022, two transgender-identifying men ran a “secret underground transgender surgical clinic” from 2004-2006 in rural Washington. To perform the surgeries, they reportedly used equipment that they purchased on eBay, including an autoclave and a cauterization machine. 
One of the organizers told the Independent that the clinic, though secret, was legal and approved by state health officials. 
&#8220;We wanted to make sure that folks would never get a bill in their old name – simple things like that. They would be able to wake up and be surrounded by trans folks who knew how to take care of them, how to treat them. Never have to worry about getting misgendered. Never have to worry about &#8216;what&#8217;s your real name?&#8217; Never have to worry about any of that,” said Eilís Ní Fhlannagáin, who helped run the clinic which was known as the “ball barn.” 
Ní Fhlannagáin, who reportedly had his testicles removed in a living room, offered orchiectomy surgeries to between 14-16 individuals in the mid-2000s for only $500, a discount from the going rate of somewhere between $2,000-$5,000 at the time. 
The underground clinic did require letters from social workers before they would remove their client&#8217;s testicles. After surgery, they offered to train their clients with AR-15s.
According to Ní Fhlannagáin, a jar with a pair of testicles was once left lying around from an operation right before state officials showed up. Ní Fhlannagáin hid the jar from the officials who were looking to verify business logs and other documentation. 
&#8220;When a cis bureaucrat is getting in your face, and you want them to disappear, say the words &#8216;transgender&#8217; and &#8216;transsexual&#8217; as loud as possible and as many times as possible,&#8221; Ní Fhlannagáin said. &#8220;They get very uncomfortable and they back away.&#8221;
While Ní Fhlannagáin said the clinic got approval from the officials, the “ball barn” eventually closed down in 2006. 
The Washington clinic echoed back to another infamous case back in the 1980s when a San Francisco surgeon named John Ronald Brown also ran <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-02-24-mn-1156-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an underground</a> sex-change operation before he was convicted of medical malpractice in 1990 and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/health/psychology/at-war-with-their-bodies-they-seek-to-sever-limbs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">murder following</a> the death of a man who asked him to cut off his leg because of a &#8220;sexual craving.&#8221;
As Walsh’s investigation demonstrated, the procedures once done off the grid in rural Washington and California have become increasingly widespread with transgender health services making it easier to get approval for such life-altering procedures.

Surgeon picking up surgical tool from tray

Package Deal: The Bizarre Sex-Change Op At Center Of Daily Wire Investigation Once Came With Gun Training

How The Bizarre Sex-Change Op At Center Of Daily Wire Investigation Once Came With Gun Training

Washington

Republican Missouri Governor Mike Parson <a href="https://apnews.com/article/transgender-missouri-republican-govenrnor-sports-d0d3ef01544dc7c22592d8ca2464138b?taid=6480bd9fd4faf0000139a7db&amp;utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&amp;utm_medium=AP&amp;utm_source=Twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> two bills Wednesday that will ban transgender treatments for minors and prevent men from competing in women’s sports.
SB 49, known as the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, will ban puberty blockers, hormones, and sex change surgeries from being prescribed to minors and prohibit Medicaid from covering transgender treatments for adults.  
The Republican governor released a <a href="https://governor.mo.gov/press-releases/archive/governor-parson-signs-legislation-protect-missouri-children-and-female" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> saying the bill will “protect Missouri children from harmful, irreversible treatments and procedures. These decisions have permanent consequences for life and should not be made by impressionable children who may be in crisis or influenced by the political persuasions of others.”
Missouri Republicans in the state House and Senate often disagreed on how far the restrictions in the SAFE Act should go, with each chamber passing its own version of the bill. Ultimately, the House adopted the Senate’s version, which allows minors who are already receiving treatment to continue to do so. The SAFE Act is set to expire in 2027 as part of a Republican compromise with state Senate Democrats.
The Act’s passage comes a day after a federal judge <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-judge-temporarily-blocks-florida-ban-on-prescribing-puberty-blockers-cross-sex-hormones-to-minors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">granted</a> a preliminary injunction against a similar Florida law to allow three minors already undergoing transgender treatments to continue receiving them. 
The other piece of legislation signed by Parson, SB 39, will strip all state funding from any public or private school that allows biological men to play in women’s sports.  The law applies to all schools from kindergarten through college.
“Women and girls deserve and have fought for an equal opportunity to succeed, and with this legislation today, we stand up to the nonsense and stand with them as they take back their sport competitions,” Parson said. “In Missouri, we support real fairness, not injustice disguised as social righteousness.”
The ACLU of Missouri said it would “explore all options to fight these bans and to expand the rights of trans Missourians.” 
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1685885459858000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0AFvCLn4CIt7S8nPLjhrIg">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a> 
In anticipation of the SAFE Act’s passage, Planned Parenthood’s clinics in Missouri have been ramping up appointments and holding pop-up clinics so more patients can initiate treatment before the law takes effect.
“We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure all patients are supported, seen, and cared for,” said Yamelsie Rodríguez, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, in a statement. “Any patient wanting to continue their gender-affirming care in a state that welcomes people of all identities: our Fairview Heights, Illinois, health center is open to you and we are here to help you make plans to get care.”

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson Holds Press Conference On Planned Parenthood License

Missouri Governor Signs Bills Banning Transgender Treatments For Minors, Protecting Women’s Sports

Missouri Governor Signs Bills Banning Transgender Treatments For Minors, Protecting Women's Sports

ACLU

Missouri

Planned Parenthood

Politics

Social Issues

Transgender

Women's sports

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joy-behar-whitesplains-racism-to-actual-black-americans-tim-scott-and-clarence-thomas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joy Behar</a> sounded like she&#8217;s fine with sex changes for minors, saying, &#8220;it&#8217;s not like they&#8217;re 80% of the population&#8221; as she slammed Republicans for passing bills that banned such procedures.
&#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/TheView/status/1666482934277128192?s=20">The View</a>&#8221; co-host made the comments on Wednesday&#8217;s broadcast while speaking to Elliot Page — the actor formerly known as Ellen Page who now identifies as a man — about the star&#8217;s new memoir titled, &#8220;Pageboy.&#8221;
The two discussed GOP-led bills passed across the country to stop minors from undergoing irreversible surgeries under the guise of &#8220;gender-affirming care.&#8221;
<a href="https://twitter.com/TheView/status/1666476414093205508?s=20">Page</a> said it felt like the right time to write the book because we live in a time &#8220;that is so especially rife with anti-trans rhetoric, lies, misinformation.&#8221;
Behar then asked Page about Republicans she claimed &#8220;are continuing to introduce hundreds of anti-trans bills&#8221; that will ban so-called &#8220;gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.&#8221;
&#8220;Why do you think the transgender community is being attacked like this?&#8221; Behar asked. &#8220;What is that about? I mean it&#8217;s not like they&#8217;re 80% of the population.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/TheElliotPage?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheElliotPage</a> calls the rise in anti-trans laws a &quot;political tool to gain votes, &#8230; to distract people &#8230; from real issues that are happening in our society that do need to be addressed.&quot;
&quot;There&#39;s such an inundation of lies and misinformation.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA">https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA</a> <a href="https://t.co/0oULt2rwjv">pic.twitter.com/0oULt2rwjv</a>
&mdash; The View (@TheView) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheView/status/1666482934277128192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The &#8220;Juno&#8221; star said the bills by Republican lawmakers were probably a &#8220;political tool to gain votes.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s to make people upset,&#8221; Page added. &#8220;It&#8217;s to distract people from, scare people from real issues that are happening in our society that do need to be addressed.&#8221;
Page didn&#8217;t explain further what these &#8220;real issues&#8221; were.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-13855">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
Page <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elliot-page-lands-time-magazine-cover-talks-of-transgender-surgery">announced</a> to the world in December 2020 the actor was transgender, about six years after coming out as a lesbian. In a March 2021 issue of <a href="https://time.com/5947032/elliot-page-2/">Time magazine</a>, Page discussed undergoing transgender surgery.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/smells-fishy-elliot-page-being-compared-to-jussie-smollett-over-alleged-transphobic-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8216;Smells Fishy&#8217;: Elliot Page Being Compared To Jussie Smollett Over Alleged &#8216;Transphobic Attack&#8217;</a>

Joy Behar

Joy Behar Seems Fine With Sex Changes For Minors: ‘It’s Not Like They’re 80% Of The Population’

Celebrities

Elliot Page

Entertainment

minors

The View

U.S.

One of the arguments you hear a lot in the debate over gender ideology, across the political spectrum, is that adults should be able to do what they want. This is the supposedly &#8220;moderate&#8221; position. Several presidential candidates believe it. Millions of Americans believe it, too. As long as you stay away from the kids, they tell you, then there&#8217;s no problem. The moment you hit 18-years-old, do what you want. &#8220;Live your truth.&#8221;
It&#8217;s not hard to see why that position is tempting for so many people. Children obviously can&#8217;t consent to life-altering procedures, including genital mutilation and castration. Adults, on the other hand, are able to consent to a lot of things. They can vote, buy guns, and serve in the military. So, if they want to pay a doctor to carve up their bodies, then what&#8217;s the big deal? That&#8217;s the argument you hear again and again.
No one really means it, though. And you know that because none of the people making that argument would use the same reasoning to justify, say, lobotomies. If you walked into a doctor&#8217;s office today and asked him to drill a hole in your head and sever your prefrontal cortex in order to make you feel better about your life, he&#8217;d say no. If he did it, he&#8217;d go to prison. No amount of informed consent — no matter how old you were — could possibly justify it. It&#8217;s barbaric. Tens of thousands of people&#8217;s lives were ruined by lobotomies. And everyone recognizes that now. No one&#8217;s marching in defense of &#8220;lobotomy-affirming care.&#8221;
So, if you defend these gruesome &#8220;gender-affirming&#8221; procedures on adults, you&#8217;re not really saying that adults should be able to do what they want. You&#8217;re saying that, yes, people can change their sex if they want. You&#8217;re conceding that these procedures — slicing up a woman’s arm to make a fake penis, lopping off healthy breasts, grafting fake nipples onto patients&#8217; chests, et cetera — are medically reasonable. And in the absence of any kind of statistical data about positive long-term outcomes of these surgeries, you&#8217;re trusting the doctors to follow an established standard of care. You&#8217;re assuming they&#8217;re not going to just mutilate anyone who walks in the door, without regard for what happens to these people afterwards.
The problem is that the entire industry of &#8220;gender affirming care&#8221; is a scam. We know that because we just spent weeks investigating the largest providers of so-called &#8220;trans healthcare&#8221; in the country. We went undercover at one of them.
What we found is that there are no real &#8220;standards of care&#8221; governing any of this. To be clear, there are &#8220;standards of care&#8221; on paper, and they&#8217;re provided by the transgender activist group WPATH. WPATH&#8217;s standards are used by major hospitals in this country, including UCLA, UCSF, and Mass General, just to name a few.
How rigorous are these standards, exactly? After a 22-minute video call, the largest &#8220;trans healthcare&#8221; provider in the country — carefully following the WPATH guidelines — approved one of my producers, Gregg Re, for an orchiectomy. That means testicle removal. Now, 22 minutes would be a record time to get approved for an orchiectomy if you had a real medical reason for it, like testicular cancer. It&#8217;s insane to approve any serious procedure that quickly, having just met a patient on a video call for the first time. But that&#8217;s what happened.
We recorded the whole call. At no point did anyone at this health care provider, which is called &#8220;Plume,&#8221; push back in any way. They didn&#8217;t suggest that maybe, this was a rash course of action. They didn&#8217;t verify any of the information Gregg provided, including his fake legal name. All &#8220;Plume&#8221; did was insist that he pay $150. If Gregg did that, they promised to write him a medically sound letter in support of life-altering surgery. That letter, under the WPATH standards, is required for anyone trying to get transgender surgery in the United States. You have to get one of these letters from a healthcare provider and present it to your surgeon. And Plume rubber-stamped Gregg&#8217;s letter in 22 minutes. And not all of that time was spent discussing the surgery, by the way. Some of the conversation was about traffic, and the weather. 
We&#8217;ve uploaded footage of the call <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on Twitter</a>. In this video call, Gregg assumed the name &#8220;Chelsea Bussey.&#8221; He did not dress up as a woman. He didn&#8217;t wear any women&#8217;s clothing or makeup. He didn&#8217;t go to Party City and dye his hair blue. He just told them he identified as a woman and that he was taking hormones prescribed by his father. Gregg couldn&#8217;t even pronounce the name of the surgery he wanted, calling it an &#8220;orchi-dect-omy.&#8221; He claimed at one point that the reason he wanted the surgery is that it would speed up his nonexistent transition, which the Plume nurse said didn&#8217;t make any sense from a medical perspective. But none of this raised any red flags for Plume. The nurse told Gregg she wanted to write him the strongest letter she could. Watch:
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10/ Plume quickly scheduled Gregg for a video interview anyway. He assumed the identity &quot;Chelsea Bussey.” He didn’t even attempt to pass. He badly mispronounced the name of the surgery he wanted. He made it clear he didn&#39;t know what effect the surgery would have. <a href="https://t.co/ph8UbM3i6r">pic.twitter.com/ph8UbM3i6r</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1666496328224890880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2023</a></blockquote>
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11/ Nevertheless, Plume’s nurse practitioner said she wanted to write the most &quot;solid&quot; letter possible to justify surgery. Gregg tells her that he once wrote an essay in school about being a woman, which everyone thought was ridiculous. <a href="https://t.co/iY7Ec3Q1wd">pic.twitter.com/iY7Ec3Q1wd</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1666496334226939919?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2023</a></blockquote>
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12/ Gregg also tells Plume’s nurse practitioner that his father has been prescribing him hormones for years. The nurse doesn’t question this in any way. Instead, she says that arrangement is “perfect.” <a href="https://t.co/YsB4BEkUpu">pic.twitter.com/YsB4BEkUpu</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1666496338035367937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2023</a></blockquote>
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A couple days after that interview, as we documented on Twitter, Plume sent Gregg a letter diagnosing him with significant and ongoing gender dysphoria. Therefore, Plume said, he was an &#8220;appropriate candidate for Orchiectomy.&#8221; According to Plume, testicle removal would help Gregg make &#8220;significant progress&#8221; in alleviating his dysphoria. Even after Gregg followed up with text messages to Plume, explaining that he doesn&#8217;t have dysphoria, they didn&#8217;t retract or amend that letter in any way.
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13/ Three days later, Plume sent this letter to &quot;Chelsea Bussey” – who does not exist &#8212; saying he was experiencing &quot;significant, ongoing gender dysphoria.” The letter strongly recommended “Chelsea” for testicle removal. <a href="https://t.co/WzIMsjygS6">pic.twitter.com/WzIMsjygS6</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1666496344045805575?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2023</a></blockquote>
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There&#8217;s no excuse for that. Plume had multiple opportunities to tell the truth in their letter, and they chose not to. In his intake form, Gregg indicated he didn&#8217;t have dysphoria for 6 months or more. That means, under the current version of the DSM, he never should have been diagnosed with it in the first place. But Plume never once asked Gregg about this in his video interview. Instead they just said he had dysphoria in his letter, which they intended to be used by a surgeon who would then carve up Gregg&#8217;s testicles.
Why didn&#8217;t Plume amend the letter once they were made aware that Gregg didn&#8217;t have dysphoria? As Plume&#8217;s nurse explained, &#8220;in order for the surgery to be paid for,&#8221; the diagnosis would need to remain. In other words, insurance companies won&#8217;t pay for the operation unless the letter contains a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. That&#8217;s why Plume uses templates that include the gender dysphoria diagnostic code. It appears that they plug whatever information patients feed them into the template, whether or not those patients actually have the diagnosis. The templates are provided by WPATH, by the way — Plume admitted that to us.
It&#8217;s not hard to conclude that this operation is fraudulent, but what do insurers think of it? What&#8217;s Aetna and United Healthcare&#8217;s position on paying for surgeries based on cooked-up diagnostic codes? How about Cigna? We understand those insurance companies work directly with Plume. What about David Sacks, whose venture capital firm is one of many that&#8217;s funding Plume? What are his thoughts on this? Is he aware this is happening? Those are good questions. 
But the problem is much bigger than Plume. They&#8217;re far from the only ones doing this. 
Folx, for example, is a major competitor of Plume. They&#8217;re in almost every state in the country. They&#8217;re also extremely well-funded by venture capitalists. Folx, like Plume, also sells letters that authorize surgeries under the WPATH guidelines. On their website, Folx admits, &#8220;It&#8217;s quite possible the information in a letter may not be specific to you. For example, they may use a gender dysphoria diagnosis, but you really do not have dysphoria&#8230; You may not fit this diagnostic code exactly, but in some cases, the code is needed in order for insurers to pay for the surgery.&#8221; We reached out to Folx to ask about this. They confirmed that a &#8220;diagnosis&#8221; — in scare quotes — was necessary in order for insurance companies to pay out.
Again, that&#8217;s probably news to the insurance companies. But the bigger issue, of course, is what&#8217;s happening to the patients who are mutilated as part of this process. It&#8217;s not just Plume and Folx who are authorizing surgeries like this. There&#8217;s a whole network of doctors who crank out these letters. It&#8217;s called the Gender Affirmative Letter Access Project, or G.A.L.A.P.
Think of the lives these doctors and these companies are destroying for profit. If they&#8217;ll approve Gregg for castration, they&#8217;ll approve anyone. Many of the luminaries in the field will admit that, by the way. On Twitter, we highlighted this training session from the Juniper Center, which is one of the largest gender therapy practices in the Chicago land area. Watch as the licensed clinical social worker, named Ari Groner, explains that she&#8217;ll rubber-stamp whatever letter patients want. She says she&#8217;ll even authorize a suicidal patient for surgery, because she&#8217;s not a &#8220;gatekeeper.&#8221; In fact, Groner says that if her patient is suicidal, that would just make the case for surgery even stronger. Listen to this:
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2/ First, some background. Ari Groner is a licensed clinical social worker who educates doctors on “trans healthcare.” At a recent training session for the Juniper Center, Groner explained that she writes whatever letters her patients want, because she’s not a “gatekeeper.” <a href="https://t.co/8CVUWiYetY">pic.twitter.com/8CVUWiYetY</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1666496309535072257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2023</a></blockquote>
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If you&#8217;re defending &#8220;gender affirming care&#8221; for adults, this is what you&#8217;re supporting. You&#8217;re saying it&#8217;s reasonable for medical professionals to listen to a suicidal patient, who isn&#8217;t thinking clearly, and approve them for surgical castration within minutes. You&#8217;re saying there should be no barriers to this kind of mutilation, whatsoever. At that point, why not bring back lobotomies? What&#8217;s the serious, principled argument against it?
No serious person can defend this industry. It&#8217;s completely corrupted, at every level. It&#8217;s not just targeting children, although it&#8217;s certainly doing that as well. The underlying claims and promises of the entire &#8220;gender affirmation&#8221; industry are lies, and the lies are propped up by even more lies. And we’ll have much more on WPATH soon, and how they became so prominent in this field. It&#8217;s a truly disturbing story. Their supposedly rigorous standards of care are purpose-built to be manipulated, as we&#8217;ve now revealed. 
The practical effect of these WPATH standards isn&#8217;t to protect patients. Instead, the WPATH standards protect doctors who butcher their patients. These doctors understand that they need to follow some &#8220;standard of care,&#8221; or else they&#8217;ll eventually get sued into the ground for malpractice by the patients they&#8217;re disfiguring. So medical providers point to the WPATH standards, and say, &#8220;look — we followed those standards. These gruesome surgeries are in fact legitimate medical care!&#8221;
Now it&#8217;s time to put an end to this. Insurance companies should cut off these providers. Investors should stop funding this barbarism. And at the political level, we need laws so that any doctor who mutilates patients, or lies to insurance companies, goes to prison — regardless of the patients&#8217; age. Florida recently <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/desantis-signs-florida-ban-gender-affirming-treatment-transgender-minors-2023-05-17/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed a law</a> outlawing, among other things, &#8220;trans telehealth&#8221; services. They require in-person visits for most of these procedures. That&#8217;s a start — which is why the media and the trans activists are furious about it. They&#8217;re probably going to sue to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1178-you-won-t-believe-what-we-discovered-in-our-undercover-investigation-of-gender-affirming-care">block</a> that portion of the law, just like they blocked the part of the law outlawing child castration yesterday.
But once people see the truth about what&#8217;s happening, the radical gender activists won&#8217;t win that fight. That&#8217;s why we published our investigation today. The truth is obvious and undeniable. Now that the &#8220;standards of care&#8221; have been exposed for what they are, there&#8217;s nothing to stop a flood of lawsuits that could shut down these butchers. We saw it in the U.K. with Tavistock. If something like that happens here, it could save tens of thousands of lives.
This investigation is just one part of what we have planned for Pride Month. We&#8217;re going to expose the full extent of the depravity that you&#8217;re told to believe is &#8220;medically legitimate.&#8221; We&#8217;re going to show you the truth behind all the euphemisms. We&#8217;re going to reveal how exactly activists have managed to hijack the medical profession so they can mutilate patients for profit. 
This is just the beginning.

We Just Proved The Gender Affirming Care Industry Is A Scam

Gender Identity

Health Insurance

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-walsh-megyn-kelly-slam-u-s-navy-using-drag-queen-sailor-for-recruitment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Megyn Kelly</a> asked how anyone could vote for Democrats, which she described as the &#8220;party that&#8217;s in favor of letting minors chop&#8221; off their body parts after left-wing politicians tried to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/05/17/transgender-healthcare-states-democrats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stop the passage of bills</a> banning transgender surgeries on minors.
During the Sirius XM &#8220;The Megyn Kelly Show&#8221; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTul5W-svGc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">podcast</a> on Tuesday, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/absolute-humiliation-megyn-kelly-slams-chrissy-teigen-appearing-at-whcd-in-non-existent-dress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">host</a> was speaking with guest conservative radio talk show host Jesse Kelly about New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan signing a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/17/politics/new-mexico-abortion-access-gender-affirming-care-law/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a> to &#8220;permit minors to access &#8216;cross-gender care&#8217; and abortions without parental knowledge or consent.&#8221;
Jesse talked about his new book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+anti-communist+manifesto&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw1YCkBhAOEiwA5aN4AVNXcD__V87BPQmMFHuALqvJpe5VvFD5UcCdwIXP9wO4naiLodbw9hoCg2wQAvD_BwE&amp;hvadid=657261582628&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvlocphy=9013184&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvrand=3903224137141615456&amp;hvtargid=kwd-1956437418180&amp;hydadcr=15517_13657462&amp;tag=googhydr-20&amp;ref=pd_sl_2k1l26lnfb_e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Anti-Communist Manifesto</a>&#8221; and said, &#8220;We&#8217;re not going to share a society and shouldn&#8217;t share a society with people who believe my 14-year-old son should chop his penis off and pretend he&#8217;s a woman.&#8221;
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Outrageous Casey DeSantis Attacks, and CNN&#039;s Whiny Newsroom, with Jesse Kelly and Joseph Massey" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YTul5W-svGc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;There&#8217;s no common values there at all&#8230;I don&#8217;t want to share a nation with any demon who wants these young girls and young boys mutilated,&#8221; he added, noting the girls who have spoken out after detransitioning who had double mastectomies and will never able to nurse their children.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/megyn-kelly-goes-viral-with-7-word-response-to-dylan-mulvaney-complaining-about-being-labeled-a-man" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Megyn</a> agreed, calling it &#8220;evil,&#8221; then got personal about the life-changing moment after she gave birth, when she breastfed her children, something these girls will never experience.
&#8220;It is a beautiful moment,&#8221; Kelly said. &#8220;And so to diminish it like there was this one trans doctor/activist who was like &#8216;so what you can have your breasts put back, you can have the fake breasts put back on.&#8217; That&#8217;s not the same. You will never be able to breastfeed once you have that double mastectomy.&#8221;
&#8220;You know, I look at it now, and I don&#8217;t get how you could vote for the party that&#8217;s supporting that,&#8221; she added. &#8220;I really don&#8217;t. I don&#8217;t mean to reduce all the big issues in our country down to the transgender debate because I realize there are a lot of big issues that really affect people&#8217;s families.&#8221;
&#8220;But I mean, how do you vote for a party that&#8217;s in favor of letting minors chop off their breasts, their penises, cut up their vaginas, and &#8216;cross over&#8217; to another gender that they will never be,&#8221; the podcast host continued. &#8220;That has a high likelihood of depressing them further.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/they-sold-us-a-bill-of-goods-megyn-kelly-says-transgender-movement-has-gone-too-far" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8216;They Sold Us A Bill Of Goods&#8217;: Megyn Kelly Says Transgender Movement Has Gone &#8216;Too Far&#8217;</a>

Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly: How Could Anyone Vote For A ‘Party That’s In Favor Of Letting Minors Chop Off Their’ Body Parts?

Democrats

LGBTQ

Media

The Louisiana State Legislature <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/06/politics/louisiana-legislature-gender-affirming-care-ban-minors/index.html">passed</a> a bill banning the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone therapy, and sex change operations on children, sending the legislation to Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards&#8217; desk.
The State Senate passed the bill along party lines by a vote of 29-10 on Monday, while the State House approved the bill 75-25 on Tuesday. If the bill is signed into law, doctors who provide medical sex change interventions could have their licenses revoked for a minimum of two years.
“Thanks to the bi-partisan support of the Louisiana State Senate, we are one step closer to protecting children in Louisiana from experimental chemical and surgical sex change procedures,” the bill&#8217;s sponsor, state Rep. Gabe Firment, remarked before going on to add &#8220;HB648 has passed both chambers of the state legislature with veto-proof majorities, and the people of Louisiana have made it clear that our children are worth fighting for.&#8221;
&#8220;The passage of this important legislation would not have been possible without the help of courageous detransitioners, brave Louisiana physicians and advocates, and parents and grandparents across our great state,&#8221; he added.
“This isn’t complicated. Kids should not have access to permanent medical procedures in order to affirm an identity that they might outgrow,” Republican Sen. Jeremy Stine <a href="https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-transgender-ban-gender-affirming-care-69a5a545a5ff0adc597a1696657479fa">said</a> in support of the legislation.
While Edwards has not stated whether or not he plans to veto the legislation, he recently <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LouisianaGov/videos/6488740654482964/">claimed</a> that bills regarding LBGT issues are &#8220;damaging&#8221; and do not &#8220;address any real problems.” Republicans have enough members in the State Senate and House to override a potential veto.
The legislation, HB 648, was previously <a href="https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-trans-gender-affirming-care-ban-ff6a5143c309e3239a2c0865a3ab77f7">rejected</a> in committee back in May by a tie-breaking vote from Republican State Sen. Fred Mills, who argued that he “relied on science and data and not political or societal pressures.” Following the initial rejection of the bill, the Senate <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lgbtq-transgender-gender-affirming-ban-louisiana-1e706e85c55800003f6759fbd9b9c6bd">voted</a> 26-11 to reassign it to a new committee, allowing it to be considered a second time.
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If the bill becomes law, Louisiana will join a growing <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/map-gender-affirming-care-targeted-us/story?id=97443087">list of states</a> that have enacted laws defending children from medical sex change attempts. Similar laws have so far been passed and signed into law in Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah, Iowa, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Indiana.
&#8220;It is my sincere hope that Governor Edwards will allow this bill to become law, ensuring that Louisiana children receive compassionate mental health care and a future filled with hope, happiness, and opportunity,&#8221; Firment concluded.

Louisiana

Louisiana Legislature Sends Ban On Child Sex Change Changes To Governor’s Desk

A federal judge on Tuesday concluded &#8220;gender identity is real&#8221; in a ruling that partially strikes down <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/florida">Florida</a>&#8216;s new law banning doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors.
Judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary injunction against Senate Bill 254, which also criminalizes permanent mutilating surgical procedures and mandates that a healthcare practitioner&#8217;s license be terminated if they violate the law.
&#8220;The elephant in the room should be noted at the outset,&#8221; Hinkle wrote in a <a href="https://www.glad.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/doe-v-ladapo-order-granting-pi.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">44-page ruling</a>. &#8220;Gender identity is real. The record makes this clear.&#8221;
&#8220;Despite the defense admissions, there are those who believe that cisgender individuals properly adhere to their natal sex and that transgender individuals have inappropriately chosen a contrary gender identity, male or female, just as one might choose whether to read Shakespeare or Grisham,&#8221; Hinkle continued.
Hinkle&#8217;s ruling centered around two 11-year-old girls and one 8-year-old boy whose parents filed the lawsuit against the state&#8217;s surgeon general, arguing that banning GnRH agonists known as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone prescriptions violates the Fourteenth Amendment&#8217;s Equal Protection Clause.
The parents also <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/florida-transgender-law-desantis-lawsuit-b2352446.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">argued</a> that Florida could not &#8220;demonstrate any rational basis, much less an important or compelling one, for the transgender medical bans which prevent transgender adolescents from getting safe and effective medically necessary healthcare.&#8221;
The temporary block from Hinkle allows the children to continue receiving puberty blockers.
Last year, GnRH substances received a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fda-officials-warn-of-brain-swelling-vision-loss-in-minors-using-puberty-blockers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warning</a> from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), saying the drug could cause brain swelling, loss of vision, and serious risks for children injecting the hormone.
FDA Officials said a plausible association between using puberty blockers and pseudotumor cerebri, which displays symptoms similar to a brain tumor, was identified in six young girls between the ages of 5 and 12.
Such symptoms in the patients included visual disturbances, headaches, and vomiting. Other effects GnRH agonists caused were an increase in blood pressure and abducens neuropathy.
A spokesperson from the FDA told Formulary Watch that the cases were considered clinically serious and determined warnings should be added to all GnRH agonist products approved for pediatric patients.
However, Hinkle, who was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida by former President Bill Clinton, ruled the benefits of treatment with GnRH agonists, and eventually with cross-sex hormones, would outweigh the risks.
&#8220;There are risks attendant to not using these treatments, including the risk — in some instances, the near certainty — of anxiety and depression and even suicidal ideation. The challenged statute ignores the benefits that many patients realize from these treatments and the substantial risk posed by foregoing the treatments,&#8221; Hinkle said.
Hinkle added that cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers also treat non-trans-identifying children for other conditions.
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&#8220;The plaintiffs&#8217; adolescent children will suffer irreparable harm — the unwanted and irreversible onset and progression of puberty in their natal sex — if they do not promptly begin treatment with GnRH agonists. The treatment will affect the patients themselves, nobody else, and will cause the defendants no harm,&#8221; Hinkle said.
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis&#8217; office has not commented on the ruling.
DeSantis signed the legislation into law last month with four other bills to protect children from harmful leftist initiatives, including mutilating surgical procedures, radical gender theory in schools, and sexually explicit drag shows.
&#8220;Florida is proud to lead the way in standing up for our children,&#8221; DeSantis said in a news release while signing the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/desantis-bans-mutilating-surgical-procedures-on-minors-other-woke-initiatives-not-happening-here" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Let Kids Be Kids bill package</a>. &#8220;As the world goes mad, Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.&#8221;
The law also requires adults receiving these surgeries and hormones to be informed about the irreversible nature and dangers, grants Florida courts temporary emergency jurisdiction to intervene and halt procedures for out-of-state children, and creates a pathway to recover damages for injury or death resulting from mutilating surgeries or experimental puberty blockers given to a minor.

US-NEWS-MED-FLA-TRANSGENDER-CHILDREN-MI

‘Gender Identity Is Real’: Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Florida Ban On Puberty Blockers For Minors

'Gender Identity Is Real': Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Florida Ban On Puberty Blockers For Minors

Courts

Florida

Ron DeSantis

The grassroots pushback against Target that sprang up at the beginning of the Left’s revered holiday of pride month is the result of an awakening in the everyday American. Parents and grandparents are rightfully realizing that the progressive left’s number one goal is targeting our children.
But while everyone is focused on the slick marketing of pride month and the grotesque drag shows performed in front of young audiences there is a larger threat that the Left is engaged in — weaponizing state law against parents.
Our nation and its success is founded firmly on the belief that states are best suited to stop the federal government from intruding upon our individual freedoms. States are in a unique position to challenge overreach when it occurs and to stop unwanted outside influences, from both government and non-government entities.
The unique power that rests within our states can be an unmatched force for good, but left in the wrong hands, it can become a force for evil. Nowhere is that more evident than in the state of Ohio, where radical Left-wing groups are currently attempting to hijack the state constitution and foist an extreme anti-parent agenda upon Ohio families. These groups have cleverly disguised their war on parents as a ballot measure focused on “reproductive freedom.” 
The measure would amend the Ohio constitution with language that starts with the assertion that “Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions.” The ensuing vagueness and broad strokes of the full amendment’s text all but guarantees it would be used to strip parents of the right to be notified if their child is seeking an abortion or even sex-change surgery.
As Washington Post columnist <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/31/post-roe-abortion-laws-south-carolina-ohio/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kathleen Parker</a> notes, the language in the ACLU’s proposed amendment “could be extrapolated to protect access to all sorts of medical interventions, including sex-change surgery or sterilization, and not just for adults.”
Groups that have long fought to dismantle parental rights, including the ACLU, United for Reproductive &amp; Gender Equity (URGE), and their out-of-state allies, are leading this charge in Ohio. And if we don’t stop it now, they will bring the same fight to a state near you next.
The ACLU has fashioned itself as the legal attack arm for the anti-parent movement. This movement and its allies believe your children belong to the state, teachers, school counselors — everyone but you.
With the ACLU leading its charge, the anti-parent movement has spent years challenging <a href="https://protectwomenohio.com/2023/03/aclu-admits-anti-parent-ballot-initiative-puts-parental-rights-on-the-line-in-ohio/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">parental consent and notification laws</a> that apply to minors seeking an abortion, fighting against <a href="https://www.acluohio.org/en/news/opposition-proposed-state-board-education-resolution-support-parents-schools-and-districts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">parents who want to be involved</a> in questions about gender or sexuality that their children might be grappling with, and even overturning curriculum transparency laws that give parents greater insight into what information their children are absorbing in classrooms.
The ACLU’s full-throated endorsement of the so-called “reproductive freedom” amendment in Ohio is a logical next step in their quest to dismantle parental rights. After attacking parents in the courtroom and classroom, they’re now using the Ohio constitution to cut parents out of any number of life-altering decisions involving their children.
The ACLU’s partner in crime, <a href="https://protectwomenohio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/URGE_-_Backgrounder.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">URGE</a>, has an equally lengthy rap sheet when it comes to undercutting parental rights. For years, the group has publicly <a href="https://twitter.com/URGE_org/status/1284188869634723842">proclaimed</a> that “parental involvement laws are unethical and must be abolished” <a href="https://twitter.com/URGE_org/status/1155995971798462466" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and</a> that “we need policies that get rid of parental involvement laws…” URGE, a member of the Ohio coalition promoting the amendment, is heavily backed by a coterie of well-established progressive institutions, including the New Venture Fund, the Packard Foundation, Planned Parenthood, and many others.
Left-wing groups and politicians remain sickeningly aligned in their war against parents, with support coming from the very top. At the same time the ACLU and URGE are pushing anti-parent policies in states like Ohio, the Biden Administration is unapologetically advancing its own anti-parent agenda. <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/critics-shred-biden-claiming-our-nations-children-are-all-our-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Biden</a> has said that “there is no such thing as someone else’s child,” a sentiment echoed by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/kamala-harris-catches-flak-saying-students-are-our-children-late-night-talk-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vice President Harris</a> and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/karine-jean-pierre-slams-bans-trans-treatment-minors-kids-belong-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre</a>.
We must stop this madness. Guiding a child’s life and helping them make decisions that are in their best interest are responsibilities that belong to parents, not the government.
What is happening in Ohio is a harbinger of what extremist, anti-parent groups will do across the country if we don’t band together to stop them now. A group of pro-family, pro-parent leaders have already formed <a href="https://protectwomenohio.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Protect Women Ohio</a>, a coalition to stop the anti-parent movement in Ohio. The group launched a $5 million ad campaign featuring <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCTAVESDkxQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ohio parents and their real concerns</a> about being cut out of their child’s life if this amendment passes.
Every parent in the country — every American for that matter — would be well-served to tune in to what is happening in Ohio. There, we have an opportunity to send a clear message to these extremist groups: that families are the backbone of our society, and our responsibility is to protect them, not elevate government bureaucrats and progressive activists over parents.
Mark Meckler is president of Convention of States.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Ohio Statehouse

The ACLU’s Campaign To Remove Parental Notification Rights By Amending Ohio’s Constitution

The ACLU's Campaign To Remove Parental Notification Rights By Amending Ohio’s Constitution

Abortion

Ohio

Retired U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Beck, who went by Kristen Beck for a brief period of his life, warned during an interview last week that the so-called &#8220;experts&#8221; who are pushing minors to transition are hiding critical data from parents.
Beck, who transitioned and later detransitioned, told Joey Jones on Fox News that professionals rarely inform parents that most minors who experience gender dysphoria or gender confusion grow out of it.
&#8220;So I was in mental health counseling for my graduate degree here at a university where I live and so I was learning all the procedures, I was learning all about human development from birth all the way through – up to 25 years old, you&#8217;re still developing your brain,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So the thing is, is that when you&#8217;re going through these courses, they&#8217;re coaching you and they&#8217;re coaching you on what to say to parents, and they&#8217;re not showing all the data.&#8221;
&#8220;So one of the biggest pieces of data that they&#8217;re missing right now is that 80% of the kids who are going through gender dysphoria or gender confusion either before puberty and during puberty, 80% of those kids are corrected,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;[The children] will get rid of all that gender confusion by the time puberty is over. 80%!&#8221;
The study that Beck is most likely referring to is a 2011 <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21216800/">study</a> by Thomas Steensma, in which he found that 80% of the 100 young people surveyed over the course of several years &#8220;desisted&#8221; from gender dysphoria. This study has been under scrutiny for some of its methods, with 42% of the study&#8217;s participants not fitting the definition of gender dysphoria, but being included nonetheless. The study did still show a remarkable amount of young people desisting as they grew up, backing up Beck&#8217;s claims.
Beck said that the treatments provided to minors often cause permanent, irreversible damage.
&#8220;If a kid goes on puberty blockers when they’re 13, 14, 15 years old, they&#8217;re chemically castrated,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They&#8217;re not going to have children when they get older. They&#8217;re not given this data. So eight of those kids, out of those ten, are going to want to go back to be just a regular old person and they&#8217;re not going to be able to.&#8221;
&#8220;They&#8217;re hurting kids. Eight out of ten, 80% of those kids, there&#8217;s studies, massive studies, 80% of those kids are not transgender,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Eighty percent of those kids are just confused. Parents, you need to wake up. Don&#8217;t let your kids get into stuff. You better share all the data. All of the data.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Chris Beck, a retired Navy SEAL who has detransitioned, is warning parents that many of the so-called “professionals” who are trying to force transgenderism onto children are hiding all the data from parents. <a href="https://t.co/A1rxudcONV">pic.twitter.com/A1rxudcONV</a>
&mdash; Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1665605758577266688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Chris Beck

Navy SEAL Who Detransitioned: Experts Are Withholding Critical Data From Parents

Fox News

Republican Governor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/greg-abbott" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Greg Abbott</a> signed a bill into law on Friday that makes <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/texas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas</a> the largest state to protect children from life-altering <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/transgender-surgery" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transgender procedures</a>.
The bill, <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SB00014F.pdf#navpanes=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SB 14</a>, bans children from being given puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and undergoing surgical procedures such as a double mastectomy for girls who identify as boys. It also prohibits state dollars from being used to fund such procedures for children. 
“If there comes a time when a profession such as the medical profession cannot regulate itself to protect patients — protect children — then the government needs to step in,” <a href="https://herald-zeitung.com/community_alert/texas-lawmakers-debate-campbell-s-gender-affirming-care-ban-for-minors/article_20d2bcbe-c505-11ed-b10d-8f9a9faadec7.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> state Senator Donna Campbell, the author of the bill, during previous debate on the issue. 
“Our children need counseling and love, not blades and drugs,” she added. 
With Abbott’s signature, the Lone Star State <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nebraska-becomes-18th-state-to-ban-transgender-surgeries-on-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joins at least 18 other states</a> that have banned transgender surgeries for minors, with many prohibiting both surgical and chemical procedures. 
The Texas law says that the procedures are prohibited “for the purpose of transitioning a child’s biological  sex as determined by the sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous profiles of the child or affirming the child’s perception of the child’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s  biological sex.”
The legislation took a while to get through both chambers of the Texas legislature as Democrats used parliamentary tactics to stall it. Notably, Democrat Rep. Shawn Thierry voted for the bill, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-democrat-lawmaker-cites-science-to-support-banning-minors-from-trans-medical-procedures" target="_blank" rel="noopener">citing scientific evidence</a> showing the long-term impacts of transgender procedures. 
Thierry said in a statement that she voted to ban minors from receiving “GnRH-analogs, (i.e. “puberty blockers”), cross sex hormones, and to undergo irreversible surgeries when experiencing gender dysphoria” after speaking with constituents and “reviewing the scientific data in this country and around the globe.”
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Left-wing legal groups, like Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Texas, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/02/texas-gender-affirming-care-ban/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have said</a> that they will take legal action against the Texas law. 
“Transgender people have always been here and will always be here,” said Ash Hall of the ACLU of Texas. “Our trans youth deserve a world where they can shine alongside their peers, and we will keep advocating for that world in and out of the courts.”
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-childrens-hospital-performs-sex-change-procedures-on-children-as-young-as-11-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">law comes afte</a>r a report alleged that a children’s hospital in Houston was performing transgender procedures on children as young as 11. 
According to whistleblower documents <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/sex-change-procedures-at-texas-childrens-hospital#:~:text=Last%20spring%2C%20executives%20at%20Texas,affirming%20therapy%2C" target="_blank" rel="noopener">obtained</a> by City Journal’s Christopher Rufo, Texas Children’s Hospital, the largest children’s hospital in the U.S., inserted an implantable puberty blocker in multiple children, including at least one 11-year-old.

President Trump Holds Rally In Houston, Texas

Texas Becomes Largest State To Ban Transgender Procedures On Kids

Greg Abbott

Texas

Dr. Peter McCullough, a prominent cardiologist and COVID vaccine skeptic, is calling for doctors who provide &#8220;life altering&#8221; transgender medicalization to children to be held accountable.
&#8220;Severe legal penalties&#8221; are justified for doctors providing transgender medical treatments and procedures, McCullough <a href="https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/severe-legal-penalties-for-physicians" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in his Substack last month.
&#8220;Young mothers and fathers ask me how any doctor can prescribe life altering hormones and remove the normal breasts in a young girl with gender dysphoria and confusion around the time of puberty?&#8221; McCullough wrote.
Transgender medicalization does not cure gender dysphoria and sterilizes many children who receive it, McCullough said. Children with autism are often targeted for these treatments, he added.
&#8220;Because the medical profession is not policing itself, states are stepping in with severe consequences for doctors who prescribe gender changing hormones [and] perform disfiguring surgery,&#8221; he said.
At least <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-the-states-with-restrictions-on-medical-child-sex-changes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">31 states</a> have proposed restrictions on the practice of child sex change treatments and procedures, but only some states have managed to get their restrictions approved.
At least 14 states have active bans on transgender treatments and procedures for minors, including Florida, Alabama, Utah, Iowa, Mississippi, Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee, South Dakota, West Virginia, Indiana, Idaho, Montana, and Kentucky.
Some states punish doctors with criminal penalties for providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or gender surgeries to minors. In Alabama and Idaho, violating the bans is a felony, and doctors face up to ten years in prison. In Georgia, doctors <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1165711935/georgia-bans-most-gender-affirming-care-trans-kids" target="_blank" rel="noopener">can also</a> face criminal liability.
In several <a href="https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/severe-legal-penalties-for-physicians" target="_blank" rel="noopener">states</a>, doctors can be disciplined by a medical review board for violating the bans. In Kentucky, Mississippi, and South Dakota, they can even have their medical license revoked.
Certain states also allow people to sue doctors for providing transgender medical treatments to minors.
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Many state bans call the transgender medicalization of minors &#8220;unprofessional conduct.&#8221;
&#8220;The writing is on the wall for transgender medicine,&#8221; McCullough wrote.
&#8220;As quickly as academic and community hospitals opened up gender change clinics they better shut them down and issue parents and children an apology,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Harming children with hormones and mutilating surgery is not good clinical practice nor is it welcome in the house of medicine.&#8221;
McCullough was well-respected in the medical community before he became a vocal skeptic of the COVID mRNA vaccine. He has written <a href="https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/news/dr-peter-mccullough-official-covid-narrative-has-crumbled/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hundreds</a> of peer-reviewed medical articles, some of which have appeared in top medical journals like the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Lancet.
“People under 50 who fundamentally have no health risks, there’s no scientific rationale for them to ever become vaccinated,” McCullough <a href="https://factcheck.afp.com/us-cardiologist-makes-false-claims-about-covid-19-vaccination" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in testimony to a Texas Senate committee in 2021.
McCullough was also criticized for promoting hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID.
Last year, about 300,000 American teens 13 to 17 <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Trans-Pop-Update-Jun-2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">identified</a> as transgender, a sharp increase over the previous few years.
From 2017 to 2021, gender dysphoria diagnoses in children nearly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-transyouth-data/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tripled</a>. Over the same period, gender hormone treatments and surgeries have become trendy despite alarm from parents and medical professionals. Young people who previously identified as transgender have also spoken out about regretting getting medical intervention.
By 2021, nearly 5,000 younger children had been put on puberty blockers, and nearly 15,000 trans-identifying teens had been put on cross-sex hormones. More than 700 teen girls had their healthy breasts removed. At least 56 minors had genital sex-change surgery.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) Holds Panel Discussion On Capitol Hill, “COVID 19: A Second Opinion”

COVID Vaccine Skeptic Doctor Praises ‘Severe Legal Penalties’ For Doctors Providing Gender Medicalization To Minors

Vaccine Skeptic Doctor Praises 'Severe Legal Penalties' For Doctors Providing Gender Medicalization To Minors

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