WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declared this week that the children of America “belong to all of us” in the course of defending the surgical and chemical “gender transitioning” of children, articulating a view of state prerogatives versus parental rights that fuels much of the Biden administration’s stance on the issue.
Fox News reported that Jean-Pierre attended the 34th annual GLAAD Media Awards last weekend, where she told far-left feminist website Jezebel that “we have to call that out,” referring to the spread of state legislation making people wait until legal adulthood to be given puberty-blockers, cross-sex hormones, or so-called sex-reassignment surgery. “And we’ve never seen this level. It’s historic in the number of pieces of legislation.”
“I’ve met a lot of parents of trans kids in the past couple of months who have told me these devastating stories, whether they’re in Texas or Oklahoma or wherever they are, saying how they now have to seriously consider leaving their state to protect their child,” she went on. “That’s something that we have to call out and continue to be very clear about. These are kids. These are our kids. They belong to all of us.”
The remarks echo similar sentiments expressed recently by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and various other Democrats, which critics say is indicative of disrespect for parents’ right to have the primary and final say over significant impacts on their children’s development, and a preference for the government to supersede their authority.
The Biden administration has given uncompromising support for the extremes of the gender-fluidity movement, from holding White House events to “affirm transgender kids” and condemning state laws against underage transitions as “close to sinful,” to promoting underage transitions, potentially at taxpayer expense, as a “best practice,” and requiring federally funded educational institutions to let males into female athletic competitions.
Yet despite their framing of the issue, evidence shows that “affirming” a child’s confusion about his or her biological sex carries severe harms, especially when such affirmation takes the form of physically transformative medical procedures.
Studies find that more than 80% of children experiencing gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence, and that even full “reassignment” surgery often fails to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide — and may even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.
The issue is grimly illustrated in the story of Yaeli Martinez, a 19-year-old to whom “gender transitioning” was touted as a possible cure for her depression in high school, supported by a high school counselor who withheld what she was going through from her mother. The troubled girl killed herself after trying to live as a man for three years.
Many oft-ignored “detransitioners,” individuals who attempted to live under a different “gender identity” before embracing their sex, attest to the physical and mental harm of reinforcing gender confusion, as well as to the bias and negligence of the medical establishment on the subject.