Children, Gender and Common Sense

Finally a public official is standing up and speaking common sense about children and gender.

Cobb County State (Georgia) Representative Ginny Ehrhart is writing legislation “to protect children from having irreversible procedures done when they are young.” So writes Maya T. Prabhu in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The bill is entitled “The Vulnerable Child Protection Act.”

Today’s “gender identity” movement, seeking to redefine cultural norms, has gone viral on social media. State and national education departments are pushing gender transition beginning in kindergarten and grammar school. No wonder gender confusion is real. In this context, Ms. Ehrhart has said, in effect, enough is enough. It’s time that parents and the state bring some sanity to the discussion, time to create a safe space for children not to be manipulated by the LGBT lobby and its allies in the educational establishment.

Ehrhart stated in her news release, “The Vulnerable Child Protection Act is not an attempt to infringe on the rights of adults to make lifestyle choices for themselves …. This is about children who are being abused by adults.”

The bill would make it a felony to perform surgery for the purpose of gender transition, including “mastectomy, vasectomy, castration and other forms of genital mutilation.” The same penalty would apply to administering drugs to a minor for the purpose changing their gender. As Ehrhart points out, “We’re talking about children that can’t get a tattoo or smoke a cigar or a cigarette in the state of Georgia but can be castrated and get sterilized.”

Earlier, abortion; today, gender reassignment

This parallels the absurdity of an earlier generation. A school nurse could not give a student an aspirin without her parents’ permission, but could refer the same student for an abortion without the parents’ knowledge. Can we imagine anything as absurd?

Ehrhart’s common sense provision would prohibit adults from using hormone therapy and radical surgery on young children. To no one’s surprise, she has come under immediate attack from the politically correct movement.

The executive director of Georgia Equality, an advocacy group for LGBT rights, Jeff Graham protests: “This legislation would criminalize decisions that are made carefully within families in consultation with medical professionals and mental health professionals. Supporting children in recognizing their gender identity is not only humane, it saves lives and strengthens families.”

Queer Med is a “health care provider” for adults and children in transition. Its founder, Dr. Izzy Lowell, MD, MBA, states that 25% of their clients are children.

I remember meeting a father in Argentina whose twelve-year-old daughter had two female classmates undergoing hormonal therapy to transition from female to male. The father was justifiably concerned, but Argentinian public school system found it acceptable.

Just as abortion has become culturally normal around the world, so too gender identity is becoming commonly accepted. Some are advocating for hormone therapy and reassignment surgery for children.

Thank God for people like Ginny Ehrhart who are willing to stand and propose common-sense legislation to protect vulnerable children against an aggressive transgender lobby.