This article was originally published by the Washington Examiner.
After years of medical professionals choosing to support failed gender ideology instead of prioritizing patient care, President Donald Trump is standing up for the rights of vulnerable girls and boys.
In an executive order released last month, Trump condemned the “maiming and sterilizing” of children at the hands of medical professionals. This so-called “gender-affirming care” often results in lifelong medical complications and irreversible bodily issues, the order notes.
The order further calls for the prohibition of such destructive procedures for children, defined as those under the age of 19. It follows an earlier executive order released during Trump’s first week in office in which he made clear his administration’s intent to uphold the definition of sex rather than indulge the Left’s harmful gender rhetoric.
The Trump White House’s actions reflect an important truth: Leftist gender ideology, and the past administration’s embrace of it, has had serious consequences — in sports, where women have been forced to compete against trans-identifying male athletes, and in prisons, where incarcerated women have experienced sexual harassment at the hands of trans-identifying males.
But few have been hurt more by this ideology than vulnerable, impressionable minors who have been pressured to embrace lies about who they are.
These lies can have lifelong consequences. Consider the story of Clementine Breen, who at seven years old, was misdiagnosed with gender dysphoria and encouraged to undergo irreversible hormonal and physical treatments before she even reached puberty.
Clementine revealed to Independent Women Features in an exclusive story last month that, after suffering sexual trauma at a young age, she was confused about how to process what had happened to her while still a developing adolescent. The medical professionals with whom Clementine spoke convinced her that her anguish was the result of gender dysphoria and that she’d feel better once she began cross-sex hormones.
Several years and invasive procedures later, Clementine realized it was all a lie. She stopped taking the testosterone injections her doctors had been prescribing her for years and almost instantly felt her mind clear. In fact, she discovered the hormonal treatment had been the root cause of insomnia, psychosis, and attention deficit disorder issues, all of which stopped immediately upon quitting testosterone.
Unfortunately, Clementine will never be able to reverse the double mastectomy her doctors encouraged. Clementine is still disgusted at the medical professionals who pushed her to pursue such detrimental bodily mutilation. And now, she’s suing her healthcare providers for medical negligence.
Trump’s executive order could go a long way in cases such as Clementine’s. In fact, there’s reason to hope his administration might even join legal challenges like this one. Such a move would be welcomed by the detransitioners who have been fighting to bring accountability to a healthcare system that sought to turn them into lifelong medical patients.
In the meantime, Trump’s executive order serves as a much-needed reminder that biological reality cannot and will not change and that any effort to convince people otherwise, especially children who don’t know any better, will cause significant harm.
We should also hope this order is followed by consequences for institutions that refuse to return to sanity on this issue. Healthcare providers who have been entrusted with caring for and preserving our well-being need to stop basing medical decisions on feelings and get back to the facts. Children like Clementine will continue to suffer if they don’t.
