NOTE: This article features some sensitive topics that may not be suitable for younger readers. Please use discretion.

In 2007, the Boston Children’s Hospital became the first major U.S. medical center to engage in the use of hormones and gender-affirming surgery to transition children from their biological gender to another that they believe suits them better. Since that period, the number of gender dysphoric youth has skyrocketed. And today, there are over 60 medical centers across the country that offer similar programs to BCH.

As of June, reports found that 300,000 teens identified as transgender, nearly twice what had previously been estimated. According to the Pew Research Center, over 5% of young adults identify as transgender or non-binary, up significantly from previous years. And further, vastly larger populations are undergoing physiological changes via hormones and surgeries than was previously seen in the gender dysphoric population. What is leading to this shocking phenomenon? Technology, culture, social trends, and entertainment seem to be converging on this misguided and distorted perspective on gender and sexuality. What can we do?

Mary Rice Hasson, J.D., Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington D.C., joined John Morales on Morning Air to talk about gender ideology, the dangerous effects it’s having on our kids, and what we can do to provide solutions to the people facing these heartbreaking issues instead of indulging their misguided feelings and decisions.

Mary, who has spoken before the United Nations on issues like education, caregiving, and gender ideology, began by explaining that this shift that we’re witnessing is, at its very core, predicated on false assumptions and beliefs.

“It’s based on the false belief that who we are is not determined by the reality of our sex or our body,” said Mary. “And we know that that’s only male or female because sex is a classification according to your reproductive capacity, your body’s design for reproduction. They are promoting the idea that your sex doesn’t matter and that what matters is your feelings about who you are and whether you see yourself in a certain role.”

Even though this phenomenon’s inception of affirming transgender children took place years ago, it was relatively unknown until recently. Certain administrative campaigns have caught the eye of concerned parents and guardians who are waking up and realizing that they are being targeted by the medical industry and legislative pushes. Their authority as parents is being stripped away in the name of tolerance and affirmation for kids who don’t understand the way they feel.

“‘Why are you talking to my child about possibly changing their body because their feelings are confused?’” confirmed Mary. “We Catholics are used to using the word ‘affirming’. We affirm the truth about who we are. We affirm that God is our creator. We affirm the dignity of the human person. But this approach is not person-affirming. It’s affirming a feeling and feelings change all the time. And when your feelings don’t match up with your body, we used to call that mental illness. And now, we’re saying, ‘No, that’s a choice. That’s an identity.’”

Much of the medical industry is ignoring the discrepancy between one’s mental and physical health in the hope that the relevant medical facilities can cash in. Affirming a dysphoric person’s transgender desires means gaining another lifelong patient who will struggle with medical issues for the rest of their lives in the attempt to become something that they cannot.

While many people are up in arms over this topic — and rightfully so because of its shameless targeting of the family, parents, and their children — this indignation and righteous anger should not be misdirected. Looking at the number of surgeries that have been performed on gender dysphoric persons, not to mention minors, we need to understand that the people undergoing these procedures are victims in their own right. Not only are they victims of the culture pushing this campaign, but most of them are running from something: past physical or sexual abuse, dysfunctional family situations, bullying, violence, and/or psychological trauma.

“They’re hurting and they’re looking for a way to fit in. They’re looking for a way to feel better. And for some of them, they start to believe this lie that the problem, really, is that they were ‘born in the wrong body and all we have to do is change the body and magically, all of the depression, anxiety, and feelings are going to disappear.’”

Across the country, gender clinics at children’s hospitals are dispensing hormones that will sterilize kids and performing surgeries that will result in health complications for the rest of these children’s lives. In the eye-opening testimony from Chloe Cole in front of the House Health & Welfare Committee in Louisiana in May, we heard just what sort of problems this “affirmation” can cause. “I was failed by modern medicine.”

The answer to these heart-breaking issues is not the acceptance of relativism. We shouldn’t ignore health and science in the name of “tolerance” or “affirmation”. The answer lies in responding with love, understanding, and helping a person come to terms with who and what they are, not the indulgence of lies and fake realities.

“The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it, and a lie is still a lie even if everybody believes it.” – Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

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