OPINION:
God calls on us to take care of the most vulnerable in our society. That calling has traditionally manifested itself in Americans taking care of our women, old people and children. In the U.S. today, however, we have taken that responsibility and completely discarded it — particularly when it comes to our nation’s future: our children.
Today, there is a growing call by the left, which is echoed zealously by their allies in the mainstream media, to turn our children into lifelong medical patients for profit and political points under the guise of “gender-affirming” care.
The mutilation of our children in the name of wokeism is a plague that will have dire consequences on the soul of our nation and its very future if it is not put to an end immediately and permanently.
Look no further than the exponential — and unexplainable — rise in “transgenderism” in America’s youth today. The number of children known to be on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones has surpassed 300,000, more than doubling between 2017 and 2021. These drugs, which are prescribed for off-label use (unapproved by the Food and Drug Administration), are prescribed recklessly, even though data suggests that a litany of negative consequences are associated with them. From lowered bone density and stunted growth to permanent infertility, the proponents of these evil procedures are castrating American children and America’s future.
In addition to pumping our nation’s youth with hormone pills and puberty blockers, many medical professionals and associations are endorsing irreversible surgeries as a preferred “treatment.” We are seeing a concerning rise in children receiving mastectomies, ovariectomies, uterine extirpations, penile disablements and tracheal shaves, all under the guise of “gender-affirming care.”
How is it that every other mental condition in the U.S. is treated, yet when it comes to transgenderism in our youth, we must “affirm” their disorder? It is a question I struggled to answer until I realized which institutions stand to gain from these disgraces. Some pharmaceutical companies have seen their profits increase as they push these medications, transgender clinics make thousands from these children, the left scores political points by attacking conservatives and Christians, and the mainstream media gets to frame the narrative and continue their decadeslong battle with conservatives. The incentives are clear, yet the consequences are equally damning.
Given my experiences across the world, I find it hypocritical that the same people in the United States who (rightfully) call out arranged marriages, pedophilia and female genital mutilation in places across the African continent are the same people who are pushing this dangerous and harmful ideology on our children.
The U.S. has the most permissive laws surrounding transgender treatments for children of any Western nation. What the majority of these children need is treatment for a real mental disorder, not extremists and woke medical professionals promoting these egregious treatments for vulnerable youth.
What we are experiencing now in the U.S. has eerie similarities to what befell ancient Rome, where its culture began to eschew gender norms and promote the emasculation of men. Given the transgender movement’s alliance with the feminist movement, it is difficult to see how we avoid the same fate without emphatically denouncing and outlawing this sinful practice. We must not forget: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” — Genesis 1:27.
Policymakers across all levels of government ought to adopt policies to protect children from these harmful and irreversible sex reassignment surgeries and medications.
From outlawing these pseudo-medical procedures, defending medical professionals who still accept scientific truths and refuse to mutilate our children, to fighting back against the secular zealots in the media — there is much work to do. Our nation’s children, and our future, depend on us.
• Jack Brewer is a former NFL player and serves as chair of the Center for Opportunity Now at the America First Policy Institute.
