Wisconsin Right Now, in a multi-part series, investigated gender surgeries and treatments in Wisconsin hospitals.
There is immediate pushback to a proposal at the Wisconsin Capitol that would ban sex change surgeries and gender-affirming care for children.
The Wisconsin Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus condemned the plan from Republicans, calling it “cruel.”
“Once again, Republicans are interfering with private medical decisions that belong in the hands of patients and their doctors – not politicians. Gender-affirming care reduces gender dysphoria and helps people live healthy and authentic lives,” caucus members said in an open letter.
The legislation would ban any surgery that results in sterilization, a mastectomy, puberty-blocking drugs, and other hormone treatments for children.
Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, is the lead sponsor of the bill, which he is calling the Help Not Harm Act.
“There are too many studies that show the harm of these procedures, and there are too many stories of young people regretting their transition later. We need to help minors by giving them the inherent blessing of time,” Allen said. “This is why the state bans minors from voting, joining the military, getting a tattoo, signing a contract or buying alcohol or tobacco. “Why should the state depart from this prudent policy when it comes to minors engaging in untested, harmful, and irreversible procedures?”
The LGBTQ+ Caucus counters that doctors and medical groups support gender-affirming care.
“Every major medical organization – including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Psychological Association – attests that gender-affirming care is safe, medically necessary, and saves lives,” the caucus members said. “We remain committed to protecting our LGBTQ+ youth in Wisconsin and will continue to be a voice for the LGBTQ+ community throughout our state. We will continue to fight to ensure that this bill – and any future legislation that harms LGBTQ+ Wisconsinites – will never become law in Wisconsin.”
However, WRN has documented that many of these organizations are riddled with bias and conflict of interest questions. For example, the American Psychological Association pushes research arguing that allowing “gender creative children who eventually identify as cisgender the freedom to explore their gender – even with puberty blockers – helped them feel more confident in their ultimate decisions about their gender identity.”
The APA has long pushed controversial left-wing political stances.
According to Capital Research, when the American Psychological Association (APA) published its guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men in August 2018, controversy erupted because the group “instructed therapists and clinicians to treat traditional masculinity (defined as stoicism, competitiveness, dominance, and aggression) as ‘on the whole, harmful’ and entirely socially constructed.”
Capital Research found that “the psychologists who make up the APA are overwhelmingly left-wing. A 2012 study found that of 800 psychologists surveyed, only 6 percent identified themselves as conservative.”
Furthermore, the article says, APA has been funded by a series of left-wing foundations, including the Arcus Foundation, which structured “many of its grants to focus on LGBT issues.” According to Influence Watch, that foundation is associated with billionaire medical device heir Jon Stryker. One of its two main goals is “to promote LGBT activism,” Influence Watch reported.
Since the election of President Trump, “the APA expanded its range of issues to include climate change and immigration, Capital Research reported.
