Alarming: US Health Secretary Seeks to Subject Trans Youth to Conversion Therapy
In alarming news from the United States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services secretary, has dispensed with decades worth of research and evidence from leading medical organisations to pander to the views of fringe far-right groups advocating for transgender youth to be ‘treated’ with conversion therapy.
The review of the country’s approach to gender-affirming care came in response to one of the first executive orders signed by President Donald Trump, titled “Protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation,” which called for a review of evidence by the health department within 90 days. The report contradicts the advice of America’s largest medical associations, including the American Medical Association, which has urged governments to stop interferring in the healthcare of transgender children.
According to Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest LGBTQIA+ civil rights organisation in the United States, the report “attempts to lay the groundwork to replace [the] best-practice medical care for transgender and non-binary people with ‘gender exploratory therapy’, a focus-tested and innocuous-sounding name for the debunked, destructive, and dangerous practice of anti-LGBTQ+ conversion therapy.”
HRC describes “gender exploratory therapy” as a “dangerous practice that targets LGBTQ+ youth and seeks to change their sexual or gender identities.”
As previously reported, the Trump administration has already halted $180 million in grants for research on transgender health and re-directed funds into research focusing on transgender people who regret transitioning and defunded a suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQIA+ youth. These are not the actions of a government that has the best interests of transgender youth at heart. Since taking office, the Trump administration has also rescinded multiple orders that protected transgender individuals in education and healthcare settings, as well as military service.
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