The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) is the world’s preeminent transgender medical organization and a leading force in the push for minors to receive transgender medical interventions, including sex-change surgeries. The group&#8217;s medical guidance, called the Standards of Care Version 8, informs clinical practice, insurance policy, and government regulations throughout the United States.
Systematic reviews and legal investigation have shown the SOC-8 to be built on faulty methodology and politicized science. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against WPATH in June 2026, stating the organization has “misled parents and children about the medical consensus and medical necessity, as well as the safety and effectiveness” of child sex-change interventions.
WPATH members receive access to a member-only<a href="https://wpath.org/membership/membership-information/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> forum</a> that discusses various topics related to transgender medicine and policy. Through a public records request The Daily Wire uncovered almost 250 pages of messages from WPATH&#8217;s member-only forum written between June 2024 and November 2024. The messages offer a glimpse into the organization&#8217;s cultural reach and challenge some of its public-facing recommendations. 
This is the second article in The Daily Wire&#8217;s investigative series on the uncovered WPATH messages. You can read part one <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-surgeon-admits-some-patients-may-not-maintain-their-vagina-due-to-brutal-complications?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Inside+WPATH%3A+Trans+Surgeon+Admits+Patients+May+Experience+Painful+Complications">here</a>.
***
Members of the world’s leading transgender medical organization admitted protocols were needed to help transgender patients “detransition” back to their real sex while publicly recommending children receive sex-change surgery.
In a private online forum, members of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) asked for advice on treating the complex medical needs of patients wanting to return or &#8220;detransition&#8221; to their real sex after undergoing sex-change surgeries such as vaginoplasty, breast augmentation, double mastectomy, hysterectomy, and oophorectomy. WPATH members acknowledged in the forum the brutalized bodies of detransitioners needed specialized care and these struggling patients were often forsaken by the medical community which gave them their scars.
“Curious if anyone or any institutions have protocols or policies related to ‘de-transition’ &#8211; either request to reverse any gender-affirming surgeries or put people back on prior hormonal state,” wrote Dr. Christopher Terndrup, the <a href="https://medicine.vumc.org/divisions/general-internal-medicine-public-health/education/lgbtq-healthcare-fellowship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">associate director</a> of the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Fellowship Program at Vanderbilt Health, in a message thread titled “De-transition Protocols/Policies.”
<div id="attachment_1143623" style="width: 677px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1143623" class="wp-image-1143623 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-667x576.jpg" alt="" width="667" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-667x576.jpg 667w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-300x259.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-768x664.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1.jpg 875w" sizes=" (max-width: 667px) 100vw, 667px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
Several WPATH members responded and expressed a need for formalized detransition protocols, writing that a lack of medical guidance left detransitioners feeling &#8220;ignored&#8221; as they try to reclaim their broken bodies.
“We really need the clinical pathways. People will ask how to go off testosterone or how to restart testosterone and I’ve asked various MDs and gotten different responses. Often, folks who are choosing to detransition feel like they have to do this all on their own,” wrote a psychologist. “When folks restart testosterone there can be mood shifts as well. When people alter their hormones, a lot of regret arises about choices they have made and it seems like it&#8217;s helpful to offer patients a non-regret focused frame — ie, that they are embracing who they are at this moment and taking positive steps to embody themselves, etc.”
Members suggested creating a specific group to develop medical guidance for detransitioners and noted transgender patients should receive psychological therapy for a period of time before undergoing any identity changes.
“I still think that we should be developing protocols to handle this regardless of how many detransitioners there are,” wrote a psychologist. “I think it&#8217;s important.”
Dr. Kurt Miceli, chief medical officer at Do No Harm, told The Daily Wire there is an &#8220;undeniable need&#8221; for detransitioner medical protocols.
&#8220;There is a critical and undeniable need for detransitioner protocols — a reality acknowledged even by WPATH’s own members. Yet this is the same organization that has ignored systematic review upon systematic review as it promotes harmful and irreversible sex-rejecting procedures for minors,&#8221; Miceli told The Daily Wire. &#8220;This contradiction cannot be brushed aside: it exposes a fundamental inconsistency in which life-altering interventions are championed for minors on the one hand while the reality of those who later seek to reverse them has unfortunately been minimized and gone unaddressed.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1142883" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142883" class="wp-image-1142883 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-1024x416.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="416" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-1024x416.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-300x122.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-768x312.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-1536x623.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-2048x831.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
In the Standards of Care Version 8, WPATH recommends that children have access to irreversible sex-change surgeries without any <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-identifying-biden-official-allegedly-behind-push-to-ditch-age-guidelines-for-transgender-procedures-docs-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">age minimums</a>. The group calls the choice to detransition &#8220;proportionally rare&#8221; but tells healthcare providers they &#8220;should be prepared to support adolescents who detransition&#8221; without providing formal protocols to accomplish this.
&#8220;We have limited ability to know in advance the ways in which a child’s gender identity and expressions may evolve over time and whether or why detransition,&#8221; the standards read.
In a separate post, a physician&#8217;s assistant asked for insight on managing the estrogen needs of a young woman who had her breasts, uterus, and ovaries removed while she self-identified as a &#8220;trans male.&#8221;
“The patient more recently has been experiencing an evolution/shift in gender identity as genderfluid/feminine learning, wanting to detransition,” wrote the physician&#8217;s assistant in the thread titled “DETRANSITION: Optimal estrogen therapy for patient detransitioning.”
&#8220;This is a complex case with much more to it and I will not be able to go in depth here, but I did want to ask the group specifically your thoughts/experience with detransition and optimal dosing of estrogen for such a patient.&#8221;
The young woman was in her 20s and wanted to detransition. But because she had no ovaries, her young body could not produce the needed estrogen and was in a surgically induced post-menopausal state.
Miceli told The Daily Wire that without external estrogen replacement therapy, the patient is at risk of developing osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and other health complications.
&#8220;Hormone therapy becomes a lifelong medical requirement following this irreversible procedure,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This reality makes the development of detransition protocols all the more essential, ensuring that hormone management is guided by clinically appropriate, evidence‑based standards rather than left to an ad hoc practice.&#8221;
The post brought out strong opinions on detransitioning on the forum thread. One member called on WPATH to “take a leadership role” in researching the “phenomenon of detransition.&#8221;
Marci Bowers, a highly influential transgender surgeon and former president of WPATH, called the patient’s situation “tragic” and wrote that one of WPATH’s great challenges was to “help patients sort through their gender diverse feelings&#8221; before receiving &#8220;irreversible treatment.&#8221;
“If ever there was a challenge to the WPATH professional community, it is to help patients sort through their gender diverse feelings prior to undergoing irreversible treatment. Though there can always be a silver lining, cases like this seem tragic,” wrote Bowers. “I don&#8217;t feel that greater caution or limits are what are required but rather, brakes, hypothetical questioning, I&#8217;m not entirely sure. How can we do better for our patients in avoiding these rare outcomes?”
One WPATH member disagreed that the situation was tragic, writing, “sometimes, like many things in life, people need to go ‘too far’ before they realize where they want to be.”
The physician assistant who asked for help later noted the young woman wanting to detransition had &#8220;severe dysphoria dating back to childhood&#8221; and was thoroughly evaluated before having surgery to remove her reproductive organs. She noted in the future it might be helpful to educate young transgender patients seeking sex-change surgery on the “potential benefit” of keeping their ovaries, “just in case.”
&#8220;They had ongoing support from a comprehensive mental health team and family. They were very much identifying as a trans man most of their life with severe dysphoria, depression, and suicidality,&#8221; wrote the physician&#8217;s assistant. “There is nothing I think anyone in our team could have done differently to prevent this or &#8216;do better.&#8217; I&#8217;m not sure if we have any data or idea of how gender identity might evolve or change over time, but that seems to be what is happening at least with this patient over time.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1142893" style="width: 452px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142893" class="wp-image-1142893 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-442x576.jpg" alt="" width="442" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-442x576.jpg 442w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-230x300.jpg 230w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-768x1001.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-1179x1536.jpg 1179w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14.jpg 1432w" sizes=" (max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
Miceli said these messages reveal the &#8220;profound tragedy&#8221; detransitioners face after undergoing irreversible gender transition treatments.
&#8220;Dr. Bowers&#8217; comments within the WPATH Member Forum acknowledge a truth the organization does not confront publicly: the profound tragedy faced by individuals who seek to detransition after irreversible sex‑rejecting surgeries. In fact, WPATH has systematically downplayed and obscured this reality by minimizing detransition and framing regret as rare,&#8221; Miceli told The Daily Wire. &#8220;These interventions create lifelong anatomical changes and permanent dependence on exogenous hormones, effectively placing patients in chronic medical care.&#8221;
Bowers declined to provide a comment to The Daily Wire. WPATH and Vanderbilt Health did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-surgeon-admits-some-patients-may-not-maintain-their-vagina-due-to-brutal-complications?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Inside+WPATH%3A+Trans+Surgeon+Admits+Patients+May+Experience+Painful+Complications">INSIDE WPATH PART ONE: Trans Surgeon Admits Patients May Experience Painful Complications</a>

US-JUSTICE-GENDERS

Inside WPATH: Trans Org Admits Need For Detransitioner Protocols While Pushing Child Sex-Changes

detransitioner

gender ideology

marci bowers

transgender

transgender surgery

WPATH

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) is the world’s preeminent transgender medical organization and a leading force in the push for minors to receive transgender medical interventions, including sex-change surgeries. The group&#8217;s medical guidance, called the Standards of Care Version 8, informs clinical practice, insurance policy, and government regulations throughout the United States.
Systematic reviews and legal investigation have shown the SOC-8 to be built on faulty methodology and politicized science. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against WPATH in June 2026, stating the organization has “misled parents and children about the medical consensus and medical necessity, as well as the safety and effectiveness” of child sex-change interventions.
WPATH members receive access to a member-only<a href="https://wpath.org/membership/membership-information/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> forum</a> that discusses various topics related to transgender medicine and policy. Through a public records request The Daily Wire uncovered almost 250 pages of messages from WPATH&#8217;s member-only forum written between June 2024 and November 2024. The messages offer a glimpse into the organization&#8217;s cultural reach and challenge some of its public-facing recommendations. 
This is the first article in The Daily Wire&#8217;s investigative series on the uncovered WPATH messages. 
***
A pioneering transgender surgeon acknowledged that genital surgeries leave patients with painful complications and a burdensome recovery process many cannot cope with.
Members of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) discussed the pain and complications of vaginoplasty, a genital sex-change surgery, in an online member forum in the summer of 2024. <a href="https://wpath.org/about/ec-bod/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marci Bowers</a>, a transgender surgeon and Immediate <a href="https://wpath.org/about/ec-bod/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Past-President</a> of WPATH, wrote in a message that some patients don&#8217;t want to &#8220;maintain their vagina&#8221; due to &#8220;pain and discharge&#8221; after surgery.
&#8220;Just because someone does not wish to maintain their vagina because of pain and discharge, jumping to regret should not be our first response,” wrote Bowers.
<a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/expert-qa/vaginoplasty-for-gender-affirmation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vaginoplasty</a> is a procedure that involves removing a penis, scrotum, and testicles, and using the genital tissue to surgically construct a vagina. If the patient doesn’t have enough genital tissue to complete the procedure, surgeons may borrow tissue from the <a href="https://www.stilleraesthetics.com/our-services/colovaginoplasty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">colon</a>. WPATH calls the final product a &#8220;<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4058296/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">neovagina</a>,&#8221; which is a large wound that requires lifelong dilatation to prevent <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/vaginal-stenosis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vaginal stenosis</a>, a condition where scar tissue in the vagina hardens and narrows.
&#8220;Vaginal Stenosis after vaginoplasty with symptoms and no desire to keep canal&#8221; was the subject of a WPATH forum message thread obtained by The Daily Wire through a public record request.
“I have been seeing quite a few patients recently who after vaginoplasty stop dilating and do not desire to keep the canal,” wrote a nurse practitioner to start the thread. “They have come to see me with symptoms of pelvic pain, accompanied by bleeding and discharge for a few weeks before symptoms resolve.”
A physical therapist replied to the message that pain and bleeding after vaginoplasty surgery are “very common.”
“Regarding the issue of pain, it is very common in many cases, especially during the first three months, due to the surgery itself and the muscle tension it generates, as well as bleeding and secretions,” wrote the WPATH member. “Bleeding can be due to the operation itself since they have internal wounds that will expel a bloody fluid or slight bleeding during dilations.”
<div id="attachment_1140619" style="width: 950px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1140619" class="wp-image-1140619 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3.jpg" alt="" width="940" height="482" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3.jpg 940w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3-300x154.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3-768x394.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" />Screenshot of a WPATH member forum message obtained by The Daily Wire through a FOIA request.</div>
Patients are typically recommended to dilate for <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/expert-qa/vaginoplasty-for-gender-affirmation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">30 to 60 minutes</a> at least 3-4 times a day during the initial post-operative period, a painful time commitment. Bowers suggested the pain and effort needed to keep the genital wound flexible might not be “worth the time” for some patients.
&#8220;Dilation is crucial but not for everyone,&#8221; wrote Bowers. &#8220;For some, it just isn&#8217;t worth the time expended or the pain experienced, if that is the case at all. Or sexual situations can change.&#8221;
A social worker asked if patients expressed “any desire to de-transition” when deciding to stop dilating after surgery. Bowers responded that the “first response” of members should not be to assume a patient has regretted their sex-change surgery if they no longer wish to &#8220;maintain their vagina.&#8221;
Patients who don’t follow dilation recommendations risk losing the ability to experience penetrative sex because the surgically created vaginal canal will lose flexibility without dilation. A psychologist, who described himself as a “post-op trans woman,” responded to Bowers with his personal experience of stopping dilation after genital surgery.
<div id="attachment_1142813" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142813" class="wp-image-1142813 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-1024x353.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="353" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-1024x353.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-300x104.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-768x265.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8.jpg 1026w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
“I’m speaking largely from experience, as a post-op trans woman who stopped dilating after a certain point and is completely fine with that. I have various friends and clients who have reached a similar point,” wrote the psychologist. “It has nothing to do with regret, I’m so happy to have my body as it is. It’s entirely about how I choose to use the body I have. It’s still good to have the (narrow) vaginal canal that I have, but because I don’t engage in penetrative sex I’ve felt no need to maintain dilation.”
WPATH does not recommend any minimum age minor patients should meet before receiving vaginoplasty surgery in its medical guidance, <a style="font-size: 16px;" href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Standards of Care version 8</a>. The only time-connected guardrail WPATH provides in the guidelines is that minors should receive 12 months of cross-sex hormones before undergoing the permanent sex-change surgery, with some exceptions. The Federal Trade Commission <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/06/ftc-states-sue-world-professional-association-transgender-health-over-deceptive-claims-regarding-treatment-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">alleged</a> WPATH had misled the public regarding the safety and necessity of pediatric transgender medical interventions, including vaginoplasty, in a June 2026 <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/WPATH-Complaint-Redacted.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> it filed against WPATH.
“It is inherently harmful and unsafe to surgically remove a child’s healthy and functioning genitals,” states the lawsuit. “Nevertheless, WPATH deems it ‘medically necessary’ for treating dissatisfaction with or distress about sex traits.&#8221;
Bowers&#8217; name appears in the lawsuit 18 times, and Bowers is described as advocating for males to receive vaginoplasty surgery as minors because they have the parental support needed to endure the brutal post-operative dilation schedule.
“Some transition doctors, including Dr. Bowers, believe performing the surgery while the boy is a minor still living with his parents is preferable, rather than when the boy is living in a communal setting with limited privacy,” states the FTC lawsuit. “This is in part due to the brutality of the procedure. Recovery from vaginoplasty requires the patient to ‘dilate’ the new wound 3-4 times daily for months so that it does not heal.”
<div id="attachment_1140621" style="width: 968px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1140621" class="wp-image-1140621 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH.jpg" alt="" width="958" height="570" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH.jpg 958w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-300x178.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-768x457.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 958px) 100vw, 958px" />Screenshot of a WPATH member forum message obtained by The Daily Wire through a FOIA request.</div>
The FTC lawsuit alleges Bowers made more than a million dollars in 2023 “mostly from performing transition surgeries.”
In a separate WPATH forum thread, <a href="https://www.childrens.com/doctor-profile/laura-elizabeth-kuper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Laura Kuper</a>, a psychologist at <a href="https://www.childrens.com/doctor-profile/laura-elizabeth-kuper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Children’s Health</a> in Dallas and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220215063252/https:/www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/SOC%20v8/SOC8%20Full%20Contributor%20List%20-%20FINAL%20UPDATED%202222.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">co-author</a> of WPATH’s &#8220;nonbinary&#8221; chapter in the Standards of Care, asked peers to recommend “US-based surgeons” with expertise in performing vaginoplasty on patients who had early pubertal suppression in a September 2024 message. Giving young males puberty blockers stops the growth of male genital tissue and makes it more difficult to perform a vaginoplasty surgery.
One doctor said pubertal suppression prevents “the growth of the vagina,” during a private WPATH symposium in September 2022, according to<a href="https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2024/01/16/exclusive-top-pediatric-doctors-admit-in-unearthed-video-that-child-sex-changes-are-way-more-invasive-than-advertised/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> reporting</a> from The Daily Caller.
Bowers responded that the surgeries “are not easy” and require “experience and technical skill.”
“Laura — as you may be aware, limited skin is a severe limitation for those with early puberty blocked, both cosmetically and for attaining depth,” Bowers wrote. “These cases are not easy, and I would state that a critical combination of experience and technical skill is required, meaning the list of qualified surgeons is not large. We have performed approximately 100 of these procedures thus far with approximately 15 each summer. There are also several excellent surgeons in excellent institutions which may have similar numbers.”
Kuper was a pediatric psychologist at the now-shut-down Children&#8217;s Health GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support clinic. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a February 2026 <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-files-landmark-lawsuit-against-childrens-health-and-dallas-area-doctor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> against Children&#8217;s Health that alleges gender-affirming practitioners subverted Texas state law and continued <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-attorney-general-says-radical-doctor-broke-the-law-to-give-minors-sex-rejection-interventions?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=37&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Texas+Attorney+General+Says+Radical+Doctor+Broke+The+Law+To+Give+Minors+Sex-Rejection+Interventions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">providing minors</a> with sex-change medical interventions after the state&#8217;s ban went into effect on September 1, 2023.
Other messages acknowledge that transgender voice surgeries, which seek to make an individual&#8217;s voice sound more like the opposite sex, are “not usually effective” and have uncertain outcomes.  
“Voice is one of the hardest things to achieve primarily because surgical options are not usually effective,” wrote a WPATH member in the forum. 
“If your patient chose to pursue surgery, they would need to accept the science and physics behind the intention of the procedures as well as the unknowns in terms of outcome,” wrote an ears, nose, and throat doctor.   
In the SOC-8, WPATH lists “voice therapy and/or surgery” as a “medically necessary gender-affirming” medical intervention. Transgender voice surgeries are explicitly covered by some <a href="https://www.hca.wa.gov/free-or-low-cost-health-care/i-need-medical-dental-or-vision-care/transhealth-program">state</a> <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/oha/hsd/ohp/pages/gender-affirming-care.aspx">insurance</a> plans. 
WPATH did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests for comment. Dr. Bowers declined to provide a comment to The Daily Wire. The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children&#8217;s Health did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests to obtain a comment from Laura Kuper.

(ga) — MARCIBOWERS–TRINIDAD, COLORADO, JUNE 6, 2007– Dr. Marci Bowers performs the transgender operation on Courtney Ridley in the Trinida’s Mount San Rafael Hospital to the tunes of Jimmy Buffet, Pink Floyd and others during the three-hour surgery. In

Inside WPATH: Trans Surgeon Admits Patients May Experience Painful Complications

FOIA

vaginoplasty

Every birthday is a celebration of life. It reminds us that every child is born with inherent dignity, immeasurable worth, and a future full of possibility. On July 27, as <a href="https://chloecoleofficial.com/">Chloe Cole</a> celebrated another birthday, Congress has a chance to ensure no child endures the irreversible harm that changed the course of her life.
Before we are ever faced with a decision, before we ever choose a path, we enter this world with a body that is uniquely ours. We are not mistakes to be corrected. We are not problems to be solved. Every child deserves the chance to grow, develop, and discover who they are without being subjected to irreversible medical interventions that can alter the course of their entire life.
Chloe&#8217;s birthday is more than a personal milestone. It represents an opportunity for Congress to protect America’s children from medicalized harm. Children deserve compassion and careful care, not permanent medical decisions they cannot fully understand and may regret later. Physicians are trained to exercise the greatest caution when evidence is limited, and risks are irreversible. As lawmakers, we have a responsibility to ensure our policies reflect that same restraint.
For far too long, vulnerable children struggling with questions about their identity were told that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and irreversible medical interventions were the answer.
At just 12 years old, Chloe decided that she wanted to become a boy. Physicians gave her puberty blockers and testosterone at 13, and she underwent a double mastectomy at 15. But by the age of 16, she deeply regretted this decision and wished it had never been presented to her as an option. By speaking candidly about the harm she endured, Chloe has given a voice to countless children who were misled by a medical system that too often places woke ideology, politics, or profit above patient well-being. Her story, along with those of many others, makes clear that Congress can no longer afford to remain silent.
Before I was a Congressman, I was a doctor. Every day, I walked into my practice with the same objective: to care for every patient and understand the responsibility that comes with practicing medicine. The foundation of medicine must always be evidence, caution, and the principle of doing no harm, especially when treating children.
That is why I introduced the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5483">Chloe Cole Act</a>.
The Chloe Cole Act places protections around minors by giving children and parents a path to hold medical professionals accountable when they have been harmed. Children deserve time to grow, and parents deserve honesty and transparency. This means medical professionals must be held to the highest standard when making decisions that affect a child’s future.
Over the last decade and a half, we have witnessed the rapid expansion of a medical industry built around transgender interventions for minors. Too many families have been told that these irreversible treatments are the only answer, while concerns about long-term impacts, accountability, and informed consent have been ignored. Parents who asked questions were frequently dismissed, and voices urging caution were sidelined.
Today, more young people, like Chloe, are courageously speaking out about the lifelong consequences of these barbaric interventions. Congress should not ignore them, either. The fact that we have to ask ourselves whether vulnerable children are being protected, or whether the industry is rushing children into life-altering treatments before they are capable of fully understanding their lifelong consequences, is insanity.
President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order, “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-children-from-chemical-and-surgical-mutilation/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation</a>,” called on lawmakers to pursue protections and accountability for children harmed by these practices. The Chloe Cole Act advances that mission by putting children and families first.
Chloe Cole is one of the bravest young women I have ever met. Earlier this year, I was honored to welcome her as my guest at the State of the Union address. Standing in the Capitol, Chloe represented thousands of families who believe children deserve protection, caution, and a medical system that puts their well-being above ideology or financial incentives. Chloe took a painful chapter of her life and turned it into a mission to protect others. She has shown extraordinary courage by sharing her story and advocating for children who do not yet have a voice.
The best birthday gift Congress can give Chloe is not an empty statement, but real action.
With the Chloe Cole Act advancing through the legislative process following the House Judiciary Committee markup, Congress has a historic opportunity to protect America’s children and ensure no family experiences the regret and pain Chloe has described. Every child is born with dignity, value, and purpose. Our responsibility is to protect that promise.
In honor of Chloe’s birthday, Congress should honor her courage by passing the Chloe Cole Act and putting the safety of America’s children first.
***
Congressman Bob Onder is a physician and represents Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District.

A trans activist stands by chalked messages on the pavement

Courage In The Capitol: Congress Must Act For Chloe Cole And America’s Kids

chloe cole

chloe cole act

DW Opinion

Puberty blockers

The <a href="https://pcusa.org/news-storytelling/news/2026/6/3/ga227s-gender-and-sexuality-justice-committee-consider-wide-swath-proposals-many-related-healthcare">Presbyterian Church USA</a> (PCUSA) voted last week to support access to &#8220;all medically necessary, evidence-based gender-affirming healthcare&#8221; for all individuals, including minors.
Presented by the <a href="https://www.cherokeepresbytery.org/">Cherokee Presbytery</a> during the 227th General Assembly, the overture builds on the PCUSA’s existing non-discrimination policy regarding gender identity and sexual orientation by declaring support for access to “gender-affirming healthcare.” The organization views the <a href="https://www.kff.org/lgbtq/gender-affirming-care-policy-tracker/">27 states</a> banning or limiting youth’s access to life-altering gender procedures as banning “healthcare for minors.” 
The Cherokee Presbytery presented the overture: “Declare that the PCUSA supports all individuals, including minors, to have access to all medically necessary, evidence-based gender-affirming healthcare.”
<a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/pcusa-declares-support-for-trans-surgeries-for-kids.html">Rev. Olivia Lane</a>, moderator of the 227th General Assembly’s Gender and Sexuality Justice Committee, explained that the committee removed the phrase “including minors” from the final text due to concerns that it would be “weaponized to cause further harm to the very children it named.” 
Lane clarified that “all individuals means exactly that. All, without exception, without qualification, and without age limit.”
The “rationale” behind Cherokee Presbytery’s overture states that there are roughly 1.6 million transgender individuals aged 13 and older in the United States. 
“As of April 2024, 38%, or 113,900 trans youth aged 13-17 are living in the 24 states that have passed bans on gender-affirming care,” the <a href="https://myga.pc-biz.org/search/3001421">rationale said</a>. 
The rationale asserted that these statistics do not include the “thousands of pre-teen youths who could benefit from hormone blockers to prevent these individuals from going through the ‘wrong’ puberty” — a statement that contradicts <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2019%3A3-5&amp;version=CSB">multiple </a><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20139%3A13&amp;version=CSBA">passages</a> in the Bible.
“Gender-affirming care is age-appropriate care that is medically necessary and evidence based for the well-being of many transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive people who experience symptoms of gender dysphoria or distress that result from having one’s gender identity not match their sex assigned at birth,” according to the rationale.
However, the argument that transgender surgeries are medically necessary or help patients has been <a href="https://www.heritage.org/gender/commentary/sex-reassignment-doesnt-work-here-the-evidence">proven false</a> for <a href="https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/02/60143/">some time</a>. <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885">One study</a> found that “sex-reassigned persons,” in comparison to those maintaining their biological sex, had higher rates of suicide, higher suicide attempts, and increased need for psychiatric inpatient care.

2026 New York City Pride March

A Major Church’s Vote On Transgender Mutilation Of Kids Is Dividing Christians

christianity

church

One of the nation’s top medical schools runs a program for future doctors to learn how to remove healthy body parts and construct fake genitals for gender confused adults. 
The University of Kansas Medical Center <a href="https://www.kumc.edu/school-of-medicine/academics/departments/plastic-burn-and-wound-surgery/academics/adult-comprehensive-gender-care-and-surgery-fellowship.html">offers</a> an “Adult Comprehensive Gender Care and Surgery” fellowship for medical professionals to obtain a “comprehensive experience in all clinical and academic aspects of adult gender care.” Through the program, fellows become members of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), a radical organization that has faced accusations of manipulating science for political purposes. 
The fellowship was flagged in a report shared with The Daily Wire by <a href="http://criticalrace.org/">CriticalRace.org</a>, an organization that monitors activist ideology in higher education. The report looked at how top medical schools and their medical wings promote transgender ideology through programs, initiatives, and medical care. 
“I think this report is a warning alarm being sounded that both the federal government and state governments need to pay attention to what&#8217;s actually happening,” William Jacobson, a professor at Cornell University and the founder of CriticalRace.org, told The Daily Wire. “While adults have broad power to consent to things, you cannot consent to unsound medical practices, or at least, that is not an excuse for the unsound practices.”
Fellows at the University of Kansas Medical Center, which receives millions in federal and state level funding, will be taught how to perform a vaginoplasty, a procedure where a pseudo-vagina is created on a male, oftentimes using skin from the penis. Another procedure is phalloplasty, when a fake penis is created using skin removed from other parts of the body. 
Additionally, the medical center will sponsor fellowship participants to become members of WPATH, an organization accused of twisting science to hide uncomfortable details about transgender procedures. Fellows will attend WPATH’s annual symposium. WPATH is one of the largest advocates of transgender procedures for kids. 
The fellowship at the University of Kansas Medical Center will also cover training in performing transgender chest and face surgeries, genital reconstruction surgery, “body contouring,” and other procedures like surgeries to remove a woman’s uterus. Non-surgical aspects of the fellowship involve learning about “voice/speech training,” and “social work/fertility preservation.”
In 2023, the University of Kansas Health System reported it had over 190 cases related to gender surgery. 
The University of Kansas Medical Center declined to comment.
Republicans in Kansas have moved to protect kids from transgender procedures, overriding a veto from Democratic Governor Laura Kelly. That cut off funding for any gender procedures on minors and banned doctors from doing the procedures on kids. 
The University of Kansas Medical Center was not the lone school scrutinized in CriticalRace.org’s report. Kemberlee Kaye, the managing editor of CriticalRace.org said that researchers found “a surprising number” of educational institutions that “were engaging in the sexual mutilation surgery.”
“I think the entire issue is egregious and troubling, quite frankly, and the fact that our medical schools are willingly engaging in this and promoting it,” Kaye told The Daily Wire. “These kinds of reports illuminate how deeply this pernicious ideology is entrenched in our institutions, whether it&#8217;s just the higher education programs or medical schools.”
The report found links to transgender ideology at other top institutions like the University of New Mexico and the Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. 
The Wexner Medical Center <a href="https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/gender-affirming-care">says</a> that it is “one of only a few academic health centers in the country to offer bottom gender-affirming surgery.” 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1127445" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-12.36.23-PM.png" alt="" width="1800" height="370" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-12.36.23-PM.png 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-12.36.23-PM-300x62.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-12.36.23-PM-1024x210.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-12.36.23-PM-768x158.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-12.36.23-PM-1536x316.png 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" /></div>
It details procedures such as carving up a person’s forehead or jaw to appear more masculine or feminine. 
“The forehead has been regarded as the most gender-defining region of the face. Cis-females tend to have lower hairlines, flat to smooth forehead contour with eyebrows that sit above the orbital rims, while cis-males are recognized by longer foreheads commonly combined with frequent hair-loss patterns,” the medical center says on its website. 
The University of New Mexico is another taxpayer-funded university that offers “gender affirming care” through its Student Health and Counseling office. The office boasts that it “offers gender affirming hormone therapy, referrals for gender affirming surgery and voice therapy, non-estrogen contraception (including LARC) for transmen/nonbinary people for pregnancy prevention if appropriate” and “routine screenings for cervical/breast/prostate cancer for people with these parts.”
The University of Arizona’s Campus Health department has a “LGBTQ+ Clinic” that <a href="https://health.arizona.edu/lgbtq-health">helps</a> gender-confused students obtain cross-sex hormones, makes transgender surgery referrals, and provides other “trans support.” 
Additionally, the university takes credit for ensuring that the student health insurance plan covers “access to medically necessary, gender-affirming health care.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1127447" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-06-30-at-1.27.54-PM.png" alt="" width="2278" height="716" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-06-30-at-1.27.54-PM.png 2278w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-06-30-at-1.27.54-PM-300x94.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-06-30-at-1.27.54-PM-1024x322.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-06-30-at-1.27.54-PM-768x241.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-06-30-at-1.27.54-PM-1536x483.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-06-30-at-1.27.54-PM-2048x644.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2278px) 100vw, 2278px" /></div>
“This access to care is a crucial element to the health, academic success, and retention of transgender-identified students,” the university says. 
While many red states have advanced protections for kids from transgender procedures, some lawmakers at the state and national level have started to push for all funding and support for transgender procedures on adults to be cut off. Republicans in South Carolina recently moved to ban all public funding for transgender procedures. Shortly after, the Medical University of South Carolina ended its transgender program at all levels. 
In other states, entities like Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/after-boasting-about-40k-trans-surgeries-vanderbilt-reverses-course">shuttered</a> transgender programs. 
Kaye told The Daily Wire that federal and state lawmakers across the country need to take a closer look at what kinds of programs state funded medical institutions support and promote.

Low angle view of hands of doctor surgeon nurse passing medical equipment tool in surgery operating room hospital

Top State University Pushes Doctors To Join Radical Trans Organization

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The Texas Supreme Court last week revived a young woman&#8217;s case against medical professionals who put her on the path to have her body irreversibly damaged in the name of transgender healthcare, paving the way for similar lawsuits.
The unanimous ruling allows Soren Aldaco to continue her medical malpractice suit against her former therapist and Three Oaks Counseling. Her suit states that the defendants breached their fiduciary duties and that their medical interventions led to Aldaco’s “permanent disfigurement and profound psychological scarring.” Aldaco is seeking upwards of $1 million in damages.
Aldaco&#8217;s win is notable because the court agreed that the statute of limitations was more complex than the transgender medical industry argues. While the statute of limitations would have prevented Aldaco from suing after she was injured, the court agreed that lawsuits can continue in cases where a minor is put on a path to medical transition.
Aldaco, an activist who suffered greatly from a medical gender procedure, is no longer &#8220;timed out&#8221; of suing those who harmed her. The ruling could set a precedent for other detransitioners and puts the transgender medical industry on notice.
Independent Women&#8217;s Forum said the ruling &#8220;establishes a renewed lens for determining when the statute of limitations begins in cases involving minors who later allege harm from medical providers who facilitated irreversible &#8216;gender-transition&#8217; interventions.&#8221;
“Today the Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that my case deserves to be heard, and that providers implicated in harming vulnerable patients can’t twist the statute of limitations to escape accountability,&#8221; Aldaco said in a statement issued Monday. &#8220;This ruling is a watershed moment.&#8221;
&#8220;The Court’s opinion is already sending shockwaves far beyond Texas,&#8221; she added. &#8220;The direct impact will be felt here at home — but providers across the country, and federally, will now think twice about their responsibility to patients. And patients will see, through the model established here in Texas, that they deserve to be protected and taken seriously.”
Aldaco began identifying as transgender around 11 and was started on hormone replacement therapy at age 17, as outlined by Kelsey Bolar, a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Forum. At 19, Aldaco underwent surgery to remove her healthy breasts and, just two weeks later, ended up alone in an emergency room for eight hours as doctors reopened her wounds from the double mastectomy.
“At the time, I thought I was going to die,” Aldaco told Independent Women’s Forum. “I just remember being on zero pain meds at the time.”
“Her traumatic medical complications opened her eyes to the ills of so-called ‘gender-affirming care,’ which she said enabled her to believe hormones and surgery could provide her with the sense of self she craved growing up,” Bolar said of Aldaco. “Detransitioned and now working to heal from her ordeal through mindfulness, Soren has become a vocal critic of the ‘enabling’ she sees happening within the gender medical industry.”
The ruling comes on the heels of another high-profile victory for a detransitioner. Fox Varian received $2 million following a verdict in New York in January. Her case centered around the removal of her healthy breasts at age 16 for reasons of supposed transgender care.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/no-one-has-a-right-to-sterilize-a-child-two-detransitioners-sue-doctors-over-medical-interventions">‘No One Has A Right To Sterilize A Child’: Two Detransitioners Sue Doctors Over Medical Interventions</a>

Soren Aldaco

How A Detransitioner’s Legal Win Marks ‘Watershed Moment’ For Victims Of Gender Procedures

‘Watershed Moment’: Why This Legal Win For A Detransitioner Is So Important 

Court

texas

A pro-union bill making its way through Congress with Republican support faces opposition from Christian business leaders who argue it could be used to advance a pro-abortion and transgender agenda without the consent of workers or employers.
The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5408/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Faster Labor Contracts Act</a>, which passed the House last week with support from 210 Democrats and 20 Republicans, stipulates that either side in a labor dispute may request federal mediation after a 90 day period. If an agreement is not reached within 30 days of federal mediation, the conflict goes to a 3-person arbitration panel that is then empowered to impose labor contracts that can be binding on the parties for up to two years.
The Senate version of the bill is sponsored by outspoken social conservative Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) who says that the bill will help workers assert their rights against woke corporations. But according to the Christian Employers Alliance, the bill could have significant <a href="https://x.com/JoinCEANow/status/2064348783203508259" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ramifications</a> for religious workers and employees.
The organization, which successfully <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/christian-employers-alliance-v-us-equal-employment-opportunity-commission-i/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defeated</a> a Biden-era mandate for employers to pay for transgender procedures, sent a letter to House lawmakers last week urging them to oppose the measure. They say that the bill would allow arbiters to embed woke provisions into binding contracts without final consent from workers or employers.
“Christian employers are increasingly concerned that collective bargaining agreements are being used to advance provisions involving abortion coverage, gender-transition procedures, DEI mandates, pronoun policies, and other ideological requirements that directly implicate matters of conscience and religious belief,” Christian Employers Alliance President Margaret Iuculano told lawmakers in a letter obtained by The Daily Wire.
Iuculano told The Daily Wire that her organization is not opposed to the measure because it directly mandates any of the policies in question, but because of the binding arbitration provision that kicks in after 120 days if the two sides can&#8217;t make an agreement.
&#8220;Because the legislation relies on binding arbitration to impose first contracts when negotiations fail, provisions of this nature could become part of an arbitrator-imposed agreement without the consent of either the employer or the employees,&#8221; she told The Daily Wire. &#8220;For Christian employers, that raises serious concerns about religious liberty, conscience protections, healthcare freedom, and the ability of faith-based organizations to govern their workplaces consistent with their sincerely held beliefs.&#8221;
A Hawley spokesman told The Daily Wire that these objections were “absurd” and a way for big business to target the proposal.
“These absurd allegations about a strong bill to protect working people just show that giant corporations are desperate to kill legislation that would help American workers while they invest billions in DEI insanity,” a Hawley spokesman said. “Senator Hawley’s bill aims to put a shot clock on labor negotiations to stop corporations like Amazon from dragging their feet after workers win a vote to unionize fair and square.”
Hawley’s spokesman said that existing federal law protected religious employers.
“Federal law already shields religious employers, and under this bill any third-party arbitrators are mutually chosen by the bargaining parties, not by the government,” the spokesman said.
The terms imposed by the bill would allow the union and the employer to select one representative for arbitration. They would then have an opportunity to select a third arbitrator agreed to by both sides. If they can not agree on a third party within 14 days, the federal government would put in place the third person.
The Senate version is cosponsored by Republican Senators Roger Marshall (KS) and Bernie Moreno (Ohio) alongside 14 Democratic lawmakers.
Opponents of the bill argue that unions have historically promoted left-wing social policies, policies that could be imposed during the arbitration process.
For example, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the unions supporting the legislation, once <a href="https://teamster.org/2019/11/teamsters-lgbtq-caucus-holds-annual-meeting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promoted</a> a “Pride at Work” guidance <a href="https://teamster.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/caucuslgbtqprideatwork.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">document</a> steeped in transgender ideology that features the so-called “gender-bread person.”
The document features a section called “Five Reasons LGBTQ Working People Need a Union,” including that “people in unions help ensure LGBTQ working people have their healthcare needs met,” including “gender confirmation surgery.”
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<div id="attachment_1118015" style="width: 1526px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1118015" class="wp-image-1118015 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-9.42.55-AM.png" alt="" width="1516" height="962" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-9.42.55-AM.png 1516w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-9.42.55-AM-300x190.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-9.42.55-AM-908x576.png 908w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-9.42.55-AM-768x487.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1516px) 100vw, 1516px" />Teamster handout</div>
Some affiliate groups, such as the Teamsters Local 117 in Washington, proudly <a href="https://www.teamsters117.org/abortion_rights_are_worker_rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declare</a> that “abortion rights are worker rights.”
“In America today, I cannot think of a single healthcare procedure that elected officials have used the legislative process to take choice away from men. Abortion rights are worker’s rights. The labor movement must take a critical stand and continue the fight for equal access to healthcare for all its members,” the union said after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Kara Deniz, the assistant director of communications for the Teamsters, argued that complaints about abortion and transgender funding were attempts by companies to &#8220;misdirect&#8221; about the legislation.
&#8220;This is a complete misdirection to basically facilitate their goal to try to stampede and block a bill that is having tremendous bipartisan support. Republicans and Democrats are supporting this bill,&#8221; she told The Daily Wire. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think they even have those concerns. To be quite honest, I think that these &#8216;concerns&#8217; are being brought up on behalf of the corporations.&#8221;
Deniz said the goal of the Teamsters was to cut down on the lengthy negotiating process and would not impact the issues of abortion or transgenderism.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s very unchristian to stand in the way of such legislation when it&#8217;s going to help people afford to live, and afford to be able to have a contract, and to not get hurt and injured on the job and be unsafe for 460 plus days because the employer refuses to give a contract,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I think that&#8217;s incredibly unchristian.&#8221;
The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States, has created model collective bargaining language demanding healthcare coverage for abortion and transgender procedures, including from out-of-state providers.
“All health plans offered to bargaining unit members shall cover comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services, including contraceptives, abortion services (procedural and pharmaceutical), and gender-affirming care,” the <a href="https://aflcio.org/sites/default/files/2022-09/Abortion%20Model%20CBA%20Language.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">model language</a> says.
Similarly, the Service Employees International Union has called for local unions to bargain for so-called trans-inclusive healthcare.
Thomas Beck, a labor lawyer who previously served on the Federal Labor Relations Authority, said that the worries of organizations like the Christian Employers Alliance are legitimate.
“I think it&#8217;s absolutely a concern,” he told The Daily Wire, noting the track record of unions pushing for abortion and transgender coverage. “They&#8217;re all proudly staking out these very progressive positions on some of the highest profile social issues of our time. And essentially they&#8217;re making it clear that they want to argue for these protections in collective bargaining agreements.”
Beck believes that arbitrators would see abortion coverage or transgender procedure coverage as an easy win to hand unions and that the end result of the legislation would lead to a binding government regulation imposed via arbitration.
Vinnie Vernuccio, the president of the Institute for the American Worker, said one problem with the legislation is that union members did not get a final vote on the labor contract with it went to arbitration.
“It&#8217;s going a bridge way too far to say the remedy for contract negotiations taking too long is to invite government bureaucrats and take away the ability of workers to vote on a contract,” he told The Daily Wire.
Hawley’s spokesman said the broader objections to the bill were a cloak for woke corporations to oppose worker-friendly legislation. The spokesman noted that employers get to be part of the process in selecting the representatives to oversee arbitration.
“It’s ironic that some of the biggest opponents of this legislation also promote the trans flag on their websites. Senator Hawley is fighting for the American worker, rather than the same Big Business who stands with the radical left to push woke, transgender ideology,” the spokesman said.
When asked about concerns with the bill, Reagan McCarthy, a spokeswoman for Moreno, told The Daily Wire that the senator was “proud to be a part of the legislative effort to protect working families. Working class Americans helped elect President Trump, and Republicans must be the party of workers, not Wall Street.”
Some corporations have moved to push for abortion coverage without union pressure. Corporate giants like Amazon, Apple, and JPMorgan all came forward after the Roe decision and announced that they would pay for women to travel to end the life of their unborn child.
Before passing, the proposal likely would have to go before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee, which could be an uphill battle with Republican control of the committee. It would also need to pick up around ten more Republican supporters to get past the filibuster and would need President Donald Trump&#8217;s signature.

Motor City Pride Parade

Republicans And Union Allies Could Force Abortion On Christian Employers, Critics Warn

abortion

josh hawley

Labor Unions

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When a Texas jury on Tuesday sentenced 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony to 35 years in prison for murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, some Democrats in the state <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jasmine-crockett-downplays-white-teens-murder-after-karmelo-anthony-convicted?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Crockett+Claims+Karmelo+Anthony%E2%80%99s+Knife+Was+Too+Small+To+Be+Considered+Deadly">raced</a> to decry the verdict, claiming the black teenager who stabbed Metcalf at a high school soccer game was a victim of racism.
But one Texas Democrat was surprisingly absent from the chattering crowds: Senate nominee James Talarico.
Talarico’s silence comes amid the candidate&#8217;s larger rebrand. It&#8217;s a different tact than both <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/beto-says-hell-yes-were-going-take-americans-guns-james-barrett">Beto O&#8217;Rourke</a> and <a href="https://freebeacon.com/elections/texas-voters-again-reject-wendy-davis/">Wendy Davis</a> before him, who latched on to every liberal issue as they cruised to crushing defeats in statewide Texas elections. As he heads into a general election fight against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Talarico is trying to convince voters he&#8217;s a moderate — and not the radical, pro-trans, anti-border security leftist that his opponents have painted him as.
Unfortunately for Talarico, his rebranding effort might fail. Because a radical leftist is precisely what he is.
Consider Talarico&#8217;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0srbD2hn2vM&amp;t=683s">claim</a> just this week that he does not support transgender surgeries for kids. 
“I oppose gender reassignment surgeries for minors,” he said on Monday during an interview with lawyer Dan Cogdell, who asked him if he was “too liberal” for Texas. 
That stance would surprise the Talarico of just three years ago, who <a href="https://journals.house.texas.gov/HJRNL/88R/PDF/88RDAY63FINAL.PDF">voted</a> against a bill to ban transgender surgeries in Texas. The bill banned procedures like removing the breasts of girls who identify as boys.
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“What he&#8217;s doing right now with this change in his public position is he is telling the world that these surgeries are incredibly unpopular,” American Principles Project President Terry Schilling told The Daily Wire. “James Tallarico is one of the most progressive Democrats we have ever seen.”
The record from Talarico’s time in the legislature shows that during <a href="https://house.texas.gov/videos/11109">debate</a> on the measure protecting kids in the Texas state House, he claimed the proposal was about discrimination. 
“I think it&#8217;s clear that this is not about science or medicine, and certainly not about keeping kids safe,” he said on May 12, 2023. “I think this is about discriminating against people who are transgender.”
<div id="attachment_1113663" style="width: 1870px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1113663" class="size-full wp-image-1113663" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-10-at-11.58.07-AM.png" alt="" width="1860" height="924" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-10-at-11.58.07-AM.png 1860w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-10-at-11.58.07-AM-300x149.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-10-at-11.58.07-AM-1024x509.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-10-at-11.58.07-AM-768x382.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-10-at-11.58.07-AM-1536x763.png 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1860px) 100vw, 1860px" />Talarico attacks bill to protect kids from transgender procedures.</div>
At one point during that debate, Talarico pushed for Republican Rep. Tom Oliverson, who sponsored the legislation, to add an amendment to his proposal that would allow kids to get transgender procedures if two or three doctors signed off on the proposal. Talarico also <a href="https://journals.house.texas.gov/HJRNL/88R/PDF/88RDAY63FINAL.PDF">attempted</a> to add a provision to the bill that would “sunset” protections for children if “high-quality, long-term studies” could purport that transgender procedures were safe for kids. 
Talarico’s campaign now <a href="https://www.statesman.com/news/politics/state/article/ken-paxton-accuses-james-talarico-flip-flopping-22296649.php">claims</a> the candidate only opposed that bill because it “stripped critical healthcare away from Texas children suffering from rare genetic diseases that have nothing to do with being transgender.&#8221;
But in August 2023 — just months after voting against the bill — Talarico <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-james-talarico-says-he-loves-trans-children-in-unearthed-clip">said</a> on a podcast that the thing he loved most in the world apart from family or friends was “trans children.”
“I love, I’m just saying this because it’s all on my mind, the trans children who showed up yesterday at the state capitol to advocate for their humanity,&#8221; Talarico said in the footage, first unearthed by The Daily Wire. &#8220;They shouldn’t have to, but it was an inspiration to watch,” he said on the “A Superbloom” podcast.
Paxton, who helped negotiate a settlement with Texas Children’s Hospital to create the first ever &#8220;detransition&#8221; clinic, quickly attacked Talarico’s pivot on the issue. 
“In an attempt to make himself appear like less of a radical freak James Talarico is trying to walk back his position on child mutilation,” Paxton <a href="https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/2064088208984686845">said</a> on Monday. “Texans remember.”
Political commentators have noted that Talarico’s rhetoric on the issue showed just how unpopular transgender procedures are with most Americans and how the electorate has shifted in recent years. 
Schilling, whose organization released ads targeting swing state voters on the issue of transgenderism during the 2024 election, said that the data showed most voters don&#8217;t support gender surgeries for kids. Even the Democrat Party&#8217;s own autopsy of the 2024 election acknowledged that President Donald Trump’s attack on Kamala Harris on the issue was effective. 
“For him to admit that this is a political vulnerability, should send a warning sign to every single Democrat that&#8217;s running in a competitive race this year,” Schilling said of Talarico. “He&#8217;s trying to win over these people in the middle and these Republicans, but I don&#8217;t think anyone&#8217;s going to buy it. He&#8217;s just been too much of a radical during his time in the Texas legislature.”
Schilling noted that Talarico’s comment left the door open for support for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, both of which can have permanent impacts on bone density, heart health, and fertility. 
Neeraja Deshpande, a commentator with the Independent Women’s Forum, told The Daily Wire that Talarico’s rhetorical shift reflected a broader cultural shift against transgender procedures for kids, which was in part triggered by detransitioners speaking out against the harmful procedures done on them as children. 
“I think it&#8217;s a permanent change on this issue,” she told The Daily Wire. “I think it was a blip that was, you know, predicated on emotional manipulation, and political manipulation, and a media environment that had really tight control.”
Deshpande noted that both the American Medical Association and American Society of Plastic Surgeons have publicly backed away from support for transgender procedures for kids. She added that Talarico’s shift was likely a cynical political move, but that it was good that support for transgender surgeries was now seen as a political liability. 
“I think there&#8217;s also just fewer Democrats willing to go to bat for all the like trans kids bulls***,” she said. “I think they recognize that it&#8217;s bulls**t.” 
Talarico is also attempting a moderate pivot on illegal immigration.
“I’m a border security Democrat,&#8221; Talarico said Monday. &#8220;I believe we&#8217;ve got to have a sane, orderly process to ensure that we know who&#8217;s coming into our country,” he said. “And I&#8217;m all for welcoming immigrants who want to work hard and live the American dream, who want to make us richer and stronger as immigrants have always done. But I also think we have to keep out folks who mean to do us harm. And public safety is the most important thing the government does.”
That&#8217;s a far cry from the Democrat&#8217;s previous <a href="https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/2015169671838695883?s=20&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=ncl_amplify&amp;utm_campaign=260609-james_talarico_fails_to_walk_back_his_far_left_record&amp;utm_content=ncl-fqjYFgn77p&amp;utm_term=&amp;_nlid=fqjYFgn77p&amp;_nhids=nclPXUQdWcLdpls">argument</a> for placing a “giant welcome mat” at the southern border and his <a href="https://x.com/jamestalarico/status/1149785576469618689">protesting</a> of immigration enforcement raids by the Trump administration. Just recently, Talarico told a group of religious leaders that there should be no mass deportations. 
“We have to ban ICE agents from wearing masks, from kidnapping people off our streets without a warrant,” he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/at-james-talaricos-church-its-offensive-to-respect-gods-pronouns-but-abortions-ok">said</a>. “We have to require them to identify themselves like any law enforcement official. And we have to end this policy of mass deportations that again is terrorizing our communities across Texas and across this country.”
Andrew Arthur, a resident in legal policy and law at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Daily Wire there was a major disconnect between Talarico’s purported support for border security and his anti-ICE advocacy. 
“Border security is not sustainable without deportations,” he said. “Because there are no consequences for entering the United States illegally, people will continue to do it.”
Arthur noted that the Biden administration’s policies that resulted in the release of some 8 million illegal immigrants into the United States led to a major backlash against open border policies. He said the catch-and-release policies put in place by Biden had a huge negative impact on Democrats during the 2024 election. He <a href="https://cis.org/Arthur/Latest-HarvardHarris-Poll-Shows-Increasing-Support-Mass-Deportations">noted</a> that a recent Harvard/Harris poll found that a majority of Americans still say they support deporting all illegal immigrants and that Democrats are increasingly weary of open borders rhetoric. 
“It makes sense that Democrats like Mr. Talarico are now distancing themselves from the Biden administration&#8217;s policies, which were very unpopular nationwide,” he told The Daily Wire. “So James Talarico is simply singing from the same playbook that most congressional Democrats ended singing from ever since Trump&#8217;s election in 2024.”
Arthur noted that the impacts of Biden’s illegal immigrant surge were still being felt in border communities in Texas while the border had turned into a non-issue for much of the country because of Trump’s successful efforts to secure the border. 
Talarico’s political rebrand includes claiming to support the oil and gas industry and the Second Amendment despite his previous climate activism and gun control advocacy. But his pivot is not contained to political issues. It appears to be changing how he characterizes his religious beliefs as well. 
While his pastor and mentor Jim Rigby denies the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ and promotes using so-called inclusive language for God, Talarico <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/at-james-talaricos-church-its-offensive-to-respect-gods-pronouns-but-abortions-ok">recently</a> claimed to believe differently in an interview with the New York Times. 
Schilling said Talarico was attempting to mask his true beliefs in his efforts to turn Texas blue. 
“He&#8217;s a trans Texan, and people should see right through it,” he said. “ He does not have your best interest in heart.”

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The Justice Department announced that another major hospital will provide “detransition” services to those who regret undergoing transgender procedures as children. 
The Cleveland Clinic will allocate $2 million towards services aimed at reversing transgender procedures done on patients before they turned 19, according to a new settlement between the healthcare giant, the Justice Department, and the state of Ohio. 
The settlement, announced last week, will require the Cleveland Clinic to no longer offer transgender procedures for minors and pay the federal government $300,000 and the state of Ohio $8,000 to resolve a lawsuit accusing the clinic of falsely labeling transgender procedures in its medical billing codes. The clinic has denied all wrongdoing. 
“I am grateful that institutions like Cleveland Clinic and Texas Children’s have decided to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” said Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division Brett Shumate. “Cleveland Clinic’s commitment to providing millions of dollars towards care for detransitioners is emblematic of just that.”
The detransition services to be provided include medical care for hormonal balancing, surgical revision and reconstruction, fertility treatments, and mental health support. The clinic must also create a website, appoint a designated care coordinator, and take steps to advertise the services. 
A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-monumental-day-hospital-to-create-first-ever-detransition-clinic">similar settlement</a> reached with Texas Children’s Hospital last month required the creation of the first-ever “detransitioner clinic.” In recent years, detransitioners such as Chloe Cole and others have filed lawsuits going after the doctors who pushed them into medicalizing their gender confusion. 
“The Department of Justice is steadfastly committed to protecting America’s children,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. “Just as the resolution with Texas Children’s, today’s resolution with Cleveland Clinic furthers that commitment and puts these providers on notice that this Department will vigorously enforce federal law where children are put at risk.”
The Justice Department praised the Cleveland Clinic in its announcement of the settlement, saying it “remained cooperative, proactive, and solution-driven” throughout the process. 
“We are pleased to have worked collaboratively toward a resolution related to an unintentional coding issue involving a small number of patients,” the clinic told The Daily Wire. “We remain focused on providing exceptional care to our patients and communities. We have complied and will continue to comply with all federal and state laws.”
The settlement was criticized by leftist activist organizations, with the ACLU of Ohio <a href="https://x.com/acluohio/status/2065067567757041860">saying</a> it was “deeply saddened” by the agreement. 
Transgender procedures on children have been banned in Ohio since August 2024 after a ruling from a judge allowed its prohibition to go into effect.

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A disturbing police video released this week shows a transgender-identifying man admitting to the murder of his parents because his mom wanted to stop him from having gender surgery. 
Video <a href="https://kutv.com/news/local/mia-bailey-details-how-she-killed-her-parents-in-interrogation-video">obtained</a> by KUTV shows a 28-year-old Collin Troy Bailey confessing to murdering his parents, Joseph and Gail, in Washington County, Utah, after police arrested him back in June 2024. Bailey, who claims to be a woman and goes by “Mia,” was convicted in November 2025 and sentenced to two 25-year life sentences for the murders. 
&#8220;I told them I was going to kill myself so many times,&#8221; Bailey told police. &#8220;Mental health declining, that’s why I needed that surgery.&#8221;
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Mia Bailey details how she killed her parents in interrogation video" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MMFUfRsMirE?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>
He told investigators his mom attempted to stop him from having transgender surgery. 
“She was trying to sabotage it. She always had boundary issues,&#8221; Bailey said. &#8220;I had one thing going on, and she took that away from me. [&#8230;] She can&#8217;t say sorry to save her life, apparently. And I gave her so many chances throughout my life.&#8221;
The footage shows Bailey flippantly referring to blindly shooting through a door, not caring if he injured his brother, saying, “If I did, so what?” 
Bailey said he had no regrets about murdering his parents. 
&#8220;So much for family,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I spent years trying to fix that broken ass family. Eventually, I had to get out, either going to kill myself or kill.&#8221;
Bailey told police that the public should be more supportive of people who want to become transgender. 
Police <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-catch-transgender-suspect-accused-of-double-murder-hiding-in-weeds">tracked</a> Bailey down and found him in the woods after he carried out the murders with a gun he bought from a pawn shop. Bailey had planned to kill himself, but was detained by police without incident after a manhunt. 
&#8220;I went to my parents to do the deed. Kill them,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It was spur-of-the-moment. I don’t regret it. I hate them. That was the last straw.&#8221;
Bailey <a href="https://corrections.utah.gov/inmate-services/offender-search/">appears</a> to currently be <a href="https://corrections.utah.gov/about-us/correctional-facilties/utah-state-correctional-facility">housed</a> in Utah State Correctional Facility’s Antelope unit, a maximum security male facility. 
There have been growing concerns about violence motivated by transgender ideology after the last several years have seen multiple deadly school shootings targeting Christian schools carried out by gender-confused assailants. 
The White House released a new Counter Terrorism Strategy earlier this month, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-counterterrorism-plan-vows-to-identify-and-neutralize-trans-terrorists?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=6&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=White+House+Vows+To+Identify+And+Neutralize+Trans+Terrorists">promising</a> “rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups,” including those subscribing to transgender ideology.

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WATCH: Trans-Identifying Man Shrugs Off Murder Of Parents

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Democrats would never win another majority in Congress if Americans knew where they stood on the issues. The Democratic Party supports and promotes positions opposite the views held by a large majority of Americans.
Democrats are against any form of verifiable voter identification or common-sense changes to promote honest elections. They promote gender surgeries on children, boys in girls’ bathrooms, and men in women’s sports. They support abortion until the day of birth. They celebrate aberrant lifestyles with parades and Pride Month. They are soft on crime and oppose adequate policing for safe communities. They support open borders and promote amnesty, citizenship, voting rights, and welfare benefits for illegal immigrants. They oppose school choice and support government-run healthcare. They support bigger government and higher taxes. And few Americans know that Democrats are the party of slavery, segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow laws, and they led the longest filibuster in Senate history to block the Civil Rights Act.
How do Democrats continue to get elected? Americans don’t know the truth because no one tells them the truth.
The most important part of any political campaign is to drive up the negatives of your opponent. The second most important part is to drive up your own positives. Republicans are counseled by their pollsters to campaign on issues voters agree with, so they run all around their districts and states criticizing their opponent and talking about border control, safe communities, voter identification, and the like. The problem is they rarely associate the wrong side of these issues with their real opponent — the Democratic Party.
Elections are between Republicans and Democrats. Over 95% of the voting decisions for the 2026 midterms have already been made based on perceptions of the two political parties. Even independents will vote based on whether they want Republicans or Democrats in power. Candidates and issues are secondary — they may change the perception of the parties, but the final decisions will be based on voter preferences for one of the two political parties. Trump changed the perception of both parties among some Black Americans when he challenged them with “what have you got to lose?” This question was a permission slip for a few Black voters to change their vote from Democrat to Republican. 
“Brand” is an odd term to use in politics, but it is the most important aspect of any election. There are only two relevant brands on the ballot: Republican and Democrat. For decades, Democrats have been denigrating the Republican brand with cries of racism, hate, bigotry, opposition to Social Security and Medicare, and support for the rich and big corporations. They’ve done a good job. Voters often agree with Republicans on almost every issue but still vote Democrat because they have been convinced Republicans are essentially evil.
Republicans and Republican-aligned organizations and media have been … well … stupid. You’ll hear them blame the Biden border, woke corporations, biased media, DEI hiring, Somali fraud, the Schumer shutdown, liberal politicians, and, far, far too often, they blame the Left. None of these will be on the ballot in November. Just listen to Republican leaders or any Republican aligned media, and you’ll likely hear them blame just about everything on the Left. They might as well blame everything on the boogeyman.
Trump’s recent State of the Union address should give all Republicans and Republican-aligned organizations a tutorial. He understands branding better than anyone in the world. Trump used most of his speech to set up and bash “crazy” Democrats while thanking Republicans for assisting his success.
Republicans only have a few months to drive up the negatives of the Democratic Party, but they have plenty of ammunition. Just remember it’s the Democrat open border, Democrat daycare fraud, Democrat shutdown, Democrat child mutilation, and all the rest. The Republican messaging strategy should not be to convince Democratic voters they have been wrong in the past, but to convince them the Democratic Party has changed: it is now controlled by radical progressive Democrats or crazy Democrat Socialists. Republicans should always put a negative word or phrase in front of Democrats to remind voters the Democratic party has left them — because it has.
* * *
Jim DeMint is a former Senator from South Carolina and a best-selling author. His latest book is &#8220;What the Bible Really Says about Creation, End Times, Politics and You.”
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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While Georgia law protects kids from transgender surgeries, taxpayers in the state may still be on the hook for procedures in other states thanks to a legal loophole, one Republican lawmaker warns. 
Georgia State Senator Blake Tillery is pushing the state legislature to pass a bill that would end all state funding for transgender surgeries for both adults and minors. Tillery, the chair of the Senate appropriations committee, told The Daily Wire that most Georgians would be “appalled” to learn how their tax dollars were being spent. 
“This is not a hard decision. This is whether or not children should undergo gender-mutilating surgeries performed by adults,” Tillery said. “It&#8217;s whether or not your state taxpayer dollars should be used to pay for gender-altering surgeries that defy biology and for the vast majority of Georgians, the decision here is clear: this isn’t something they support and it&#8217;s not something that should be supported with their taxpayer dollars.”
While state law currently prohibits transgender surgeries on kids, Tillery said that the state is required to cover the transgender surgeries of minors covered under the State&#8217;s Health Benefit Plan. The plan applies to public school teachers and other state employees. Around 660,000 people are currently covered under the plan.
Tillery said a Georgia citizen covered under the State Health Benefit Plan could leave the state and go to a place like New York or California and have a transgender surgery done on their child, paid for by the state. 
He said that “if we don&#8217;t ban our state taxpayer dollars from being used to fund” these surgeries that the “convoluted system of laws requires our state taxpayer funding to be used” for the procedures in other states. 
For the last two years, Tillery, who is running for lieutenant governor, has spearheaded efforts in the Senate to cut off taxpayer funding for transgender surgeries for both children and adults. His first bill to take such action, <a href="https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/legislation/document/20252026/230415">SB 39</a>, passed the Senate, but has yet to be acted on by the House.
Last month, the Senate <a href="https://georgiarecorder.com/2026/02/10/georgia-senate-passes-surprise-ban-on-puberty-blockers-for-minors/">passed</a> a proposal banning puberty blockers for kids, with an amendment to end funding for transgender surgeries. The House has not voted yet on the amended bill. The office of House Speaker Jon Burns did not respond to request for comment. 
The <a href="https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/legislation/document/20252026/242189">amendment </a>to HB 54 was introduced by Tillery and specified that “no state funds shall be expended for health benefits coverage that includes coverage for gender-affirming care” and that “no healthcare facility owned or operated by the state and no physician or other healthcare provider employed by an agency or entity of this state shall provide gender-affirming care.”
He noted that state dollars cannot go to other elective procedures like facelifts or tummy tucks.
“Georgians aren&#8217;t allowed to use their state health benefit plan or private insurance or other elective surgeries,” he said. “Why should their state taxpayer dollars be used to pay for others&#8217; elective surgeries? Especially those that go well against the norm of the majority of Georgia&#8217;s beliefs.”
The push to end all funding for transgender procedures comes as over two dozen Republican-led states have shielded kids from surgeries and hormonal interventions. At the same time, some hospitals have ended their transgender surgery offerings. 
The Nashville-based Vanderbilt Health <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/after-boasting-about-40k-trans-surgeries-vanderbilt-reverses-course">announced</a> last month that it was phasing out offering patients procedures like crafting pseudo-genitalia for gender-confused individuals and removing the breasts of women who identify as men.

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Red State Republican Warns Taxpayers Are On The Hook For Trans Surgeries

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