LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – What happens after a healthy boy tells a doctor he wants to take estrogen so he can live as a woman and be his authentic self? What about the girl who asks doctors to surgically remove her healthy breasts and put her on testosterone for the rest of her life because she wants to be a man?
Happily ever after, right? Not by a long shot.
“The only path.”
People who underwent medical procedures to permanently alter their gender testified before a Michigan House Oversight Subcommittee on Child Welfare on Tuesday, detailing about the lesser seen side of medical transitions. This included testimony from patients, parents, and a former transition social worker.
“I started transitioning when I was 13-year-old,” a 22-year-old man testified. He said a therapist gave him unsolicited medical advice to undergo gender reassignment. “Everyone told me this is the only path for me.”
Hormone replacements came with devastating side effects, according to his testimony. One included an ulcer at the age of 17. Now that he is an adult and de-transitioning, he said the continued health ramifications are severe and he struggles to find care or support from the medical community.
Disfigured genitals.
Others testified that psychological confusion and physical pain also marked their childhood transition. “My genitals were disfigured by chemicals before I [was old enough to] consent to sex as an adult,” said Prisha Mosley, a woman who was pressured to reassign her gender to male before she turned 13.
Parents pushed back against a popular line used in pro-trans communities: “Would you rather have a dead daughter or a living son?” They testified that medical professionals said if they didn’t support their child’s transition, he or she would likely commit suicide. Other parents testified that vague threats of having their children taken away from them hovered over their heads.
“Do kids ever change their minds?”
State Representative Luke Meerman (R-Coopersville) chairs the committee. He spoke on The Steve Gruber Show on Tuesday prior to the hearing and said there is no support or medical care for children who want to turn back to their natural gender after undergoing hormone therapy and “horrible surgeries.”
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“Do kids ever change their mind?” Rep. Meerman said to Gruber. “We all should think long and hard about that. When you start someone on puberty blockers at 13, when you do surgeries on them, they can’t change their mind.”
Someone who did change her mind is Jamie Reid. She’s a former case manager at the Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital who testified she cannot ignore the “morally and medically appalling” practices being inflicted on minors. Reid, a former Democrat-turned-whistleblower, expressed deep regret to the committee.
“I cannot undo these harms, but I can dedicate the rest of my life to telling the truth and protecting others,” Reid said.
