DALLAS (LifeSiteNews) – A top “gender clinic” in Texas that provided dangerous, experimental transgender drugs to children has shut down after months of pushback by conservative activists and local parents.
Dallas Children’s Medical Center and UT Southwestern Medical Center quietly shuttered the program, known as GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support (GENECIS), late last month, the Dallas Express reported.
In a statement to media outlets, Children’s Medical Center and UT Southwestern said that they will continue to accept new patients for evaluations of gender dysphoria, but will no longer offer transgender hormone drugs. “Pediatric endocrinology, psychiatry and adolescent and young adult care coordinated through [GENECIS] are now managed and coordinated through each specialty department,” the statement added.
The hospitals said that they “do not anticipate any interruption of care or services for our existing patients,” however.
Hospital officials have not given a reason for the sudden closure of GENECIS, which came amid blistering pressure from Texas parents and weeks of protests aimed directly at hospital board members and donors.
GENECIS, the only “gender-affirmation” program in the Southwest for children, gave irreversibly damaging hormone blockers to kids as young as 10 and claimed on its now-defunct website to have “impacted thousands of youth across the country.” The clinic also made referrals for mutilating transgender “sex change” surgeries.
Children’s Medical Center has since removed all online references to GENECIS, as well as links to pro-transgender activist organizations, like the Transgender Education Network of Texas and Lambda Legal.
Grassroots pro-family groups that organized protests against the clinic hailed the collapse of GENECIS as a major victory for vulnerable children.
“Thanks to Save Texas Kids volunteers, the abusive GENECIS facility has been disbanded,” said Save Texas Kids, a local parents group. “Hundreds of kids will be able to stay kids and grow out of their gender dysphoria and enjoy the bodies God has given them instead of suffering the harm of these abusive and crippling procedures.”
“While Save Texas Kids celebrates this announcement, we fear that some of these procedures will continue covertly,” STK noted. “Thus, we are demanding UTSW and Children’s Medical hold to their commitment of not prescribing any form of hormone therapy for minors … and refrain from referring children to other facilities that could perform such procedures.”
Save Texas Kids for weeks protested at board members’ houses and office buildings, demanding that they dismantle GENECIS. The group demonstrated at the office of Robbie Briggs, a Children’s Medical board member and owner of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International retail firm, days before the hospital confirmed the closure of the clinic. One protester at the event held a sign that read, “Dallas Children’s Board Member Robbie Briggs Castrates Kids!” according to the Daily Express.
Texas MassResitance, which began protesting GENECIS in March, also celebrated the demise of the program, calling it “a big victory for the pro-family movement.”
“It follows months of intense activism and pressure by Texas MassResistance, and others, on the hospital, the Texas Legislature, and the Governor,” MassResistance said. “This is what relentless pro-family activism can accomplish! Even arrogant high-ranking state politicians can be forced to do the right thing.”
“It was interesting to see and very heartening that the opinion against pushing ‘transition’ of these children and ‘affirmation’ socially, medically, and surgically at the clinic there was called into question,” Dr. Quentin Van Meter, president of American College of Pediatricians, told LifeSiteNews.
“I think enough people spoke loudly and through major donors to the university to say that, we were going to put some financial pressure. Money speaks, and if the university gets the opinion that their donors are going to start walking away and giving to other places, the university stepped back and said, ‘Oops, we’ve got a problem here.’”
Founded in 2015 by Dr. Ximena Lopez, GENECIS quickly became known as the top “transgender clinic” for children in Texas and surrounding states, made more than 20 referrals per month within a year of opening and saw around 400 kids by early 2017, according to local news. Some “patients” were just four years old.
James Younger, a nine-year-old whose legal mother is pushing to have him “transitioned” to a girl named Luna, was reportedly seen at GENECIS.
Like many activist doctors pushing experimental transgender procedures for kids, Ximena Lopez is a paid consultant of at least one company that markets hormone blockers increasingly used to halt the puberty of gender-confused children. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has never approved puberty blockers or any other drugs for gender dysphoria, and there is no long-term, clinical data about the use of transgender drugs or surgeries in minors with gender disorders.
At the same time, puberty blockers are linked to a host of serious, permanent side effects, like “osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility,” according to the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds). Up to around 100 percent of boys and 90 percent of girls with gender dysphoria come to accept their sex by adulthood, though virtually all of those started on puberty blockers later take up cross-sex hormones, which often sterilize users and typically lead to devastating transgender surgeries.
In 2019, LifePetitions launched a similar petition on behalf of Jeff Younger (the father) and his son James, asking for support and for the Texas state authorities to intervene in a unbelievable case in which the Dallas courts keep flip-flopping over which parent has parental rights and, ultimately, whether or not James must be forced to live as a girl and suffer the trauma of so-called gender "transitioning," as his mom believes he is a girl.
Incredibly, we now seem to be back at square one.
Jeff Younger currently has a gag order put on him, which prohibits him to speak out in defense of his son. But, because he has recently decided to ignore that order, to save his son from irreversible surgery, this brave Dad now faces possible arrest.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition which does two things: 1) Supports Jeff Younger (again, the Dad) in his fight to save his son, James, from so-called gender "transitioning;" and, 2) Calls on Texas' Attorney General to intervene in this case and quash the gag order against Mr. Younger.
CLICK HERE to WATCH the latest LifeSite interview with Jeff Younger. Hear about the latest developments with his son, as well as the real dangers of gender reassignment surgery and other “transititioning” methods.
Currently, even though he shares 50/50 parental rights to James, which has allowed him to stop the chemical castration of his son, Jeff’s ex-wife recently sued to have full parental rights and to "give her sole medical and psychological decision making."
Jeff is also being threatened with jail time from the gag order, which he believes was intentionally done to stop him from helping pass legislation in Texas to ban sex-change surgeries for minors.
Jeff says that the gag order "prohibits me from speaking on all manner of political topics. And I’m not even allowed to tell you in that gag order whether my son’s a boy or girl."
But Jeff is speaking out, no matter what, because of the real danger that his son is in if he undergoes "transition" surgery.
Indeed, so-called gender "transitions" present many unsafe effects, some desired, some undesired, though all dangerous for one's physical and mental health.
Puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones have not been proven safe. For example, the FDA has NOT approved Lupron and GnRH analogues for use in blocking puberty.
Risks associated with these pharmaceuticals include: low bone density, high blood pressure, weight gain, abnormal glucose tolerance, breast cancer, liver disease, thrombosis, and cardiovascular disease.
And, additional risks and potential harms include:
For Males: Stunting of penile and testicular growth, sexual dysfunction, prevention of spermatogenesis, and disruption of normal brain and bone development.
For Females: A menopause-like state, blockade of normal breast development, decreased blood flow to vagina and vulva, sexual dysfunction, thinning of vaginal epithelium, vaginal atrophy, prevention of menses/ovulation, and disruption of normal brain and bone development.
In other words, these medications can sterilize and cause medical harm to vulnerable, confused children.
And, the stunning part about this: studies show that 85% of gender confused children eventually become comfortable with the sex of their bodies.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition which supports Jeff Younger, a Texas Dad, who is fighting to prevent his son, James, from being "turned into a girl." At the same time, we appeal to Texas State Attorney General, to intervene in this case and quash the gag order against Jeff.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Save James: Father risks arrest to save 9-year-old son from forced gender-transition': https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/save-james-father-risks-arrest-to-save-9-year-old-son-from-forced-gender-transition
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE DANGERS OF PUSHING GENDER IDEOLOGY ON CHILDREN:
Many eminent psychiatrists are now speaking against the faulty notion that sex is fluid and a matter of choice. In particular, they are concerned about the welfare of children and young people in this regard.
Dr Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins University, who has researched the occurrence of gender dysphoria for 40 years, has stated that the notion of gender fluidity "is doing much damage to families, adolescents, and children and should be confronted as an opinion without biological foundation wherever it emerges". [See more below.]
And, the American College of Pediatricians (ACP) is definite about the promotion of transgenderism as being harmful public policy:
"Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: 'XY' and 'XX' are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder. The norm for human design is to be conceived, either male or female…Conditioning children into believing that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse. Endorsing gender discordance as normal via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents…” [Read more below.]
Here is what Dr Paul McHugh said on this topic: https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/johns-hopkins-psychiatrist-transgendered-men-dont-become-women-they-become
This is the ACP statement on Gender Ideology: http://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/gender-ideology-harms-children
About the medical risks associated with medical interventions to attempt to change the sex of the body: https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/01/59422/
About some of the unconscionable practices some medical professionals are engaged in:
“We still need to pass legislation in Texas to ban these practices,” Tracy Shannon of Texas MassResistance told American Family News. “We should ban all of them because they’re completely unethical and don’t do what they say, because nobody can change sex. We really must protect vulnerable children.”
Shannon urged Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session to pass legislation that would criminalize transgender surgeries and drugs for minors.
The Texas Senate passed two bills earlier this year that would have that outlawed both practices, but they ultimately died in the Republican-controlled House, despite the backing of dozens of Republican co-sponsors.
In August, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services declared that genital amputation surgery is child abuse under Texas law, following a review ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also launched an investigation last week into two pharmaceutical companies accused of illegally promoting hormone blockers for gender dysphoric children.
Arkansas and Tennessee have also taken action this year to restrict hormone drugs and “sex change” surgeries for children and adolescents.
RELATED:
President of American College of Pediatricians slams transgender drugs as ‘child abuse’
Texas investigating ‘dangerous’ promotion of puberty blockers for gender-confused kids