The culture wars are raging, but on at least one front the forces of good are winning. The “trans” ideology is crumbling fast. The latest evidence is this piece in Newsweek, written by two of the authors of the Department of Health and Human Services’ recent paper, “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices.”
The authors begin with a ritual denunciation of HHS and an assurance that “we, along with most of the other authors, are liberals.” But they go on to break the news to their fellow lefties:
The approach to pediatric gender distress currently favored in the U.S., which involves the provision of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones sometimes followed by surgery, was rapidly adopted internationally largely on the basis of a Dutch experiment comprised of just 70 adolescents who had been gender nonconforming since early childhood. The vast majority of these patients (62 out of 70) reported being exclusively same-sex attracted (gay).
They relate some of the shortcomings of that meager study, and conclude:
In short, the medical practice now known euphemistically as pediatric “gender affirming care” is based on methodologically weak research that sterilized a group of gay or bisexual youth and left one of them dead.
These are the key paragraphs. Links omitted:
While it may sound jarring to readers who have, reasonably, deferred to U.S. medical societies and civil rights advocacy groups on this issue, there is no longer any legitimate scientific controversy about the weak evidence underlying the purported benefits of the “gender affirming” model for youth. Readers may also be surprised to learn that the first countries to restrict these practices were politically progressive Finland and Sweden, whose socialized health care systems are widely admired. It was these Scandinavian social democracies—not U.S. red states—that were first to conduct systematic reviews and conclude there is no reliable evidence supporting pediatric medical transition. Finland sharply restricted the practice in 2020, followed by Sweden in 2022. The U.K. was next, and other nations are pulling back, too.
The HHS review’s evidence analysis arrives at the same conclusion regarding the sorry state of the evidence. Weighing the purported benefits against the risks (which include not only infertility and sexual dysfunction but also decreased bone density, delayed cognitive development and inability to breastfeed after mastectomy) the review concludes that the harms of pediatric medical transition far outweigh the unproven mental health benefits.
I think the U.S. is pretty much the last country that is sticking by “trans” ideology. The tide is flowing in the right direction, but what will really speed it up is the inevitable lawsuits. It will be interesting to see those who have been mutilating children explain the informed consent that they got from the children’s parents.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/12/now-they-tell-us-8.php
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