We are in the midst of a transgender moral panic. Where only recently, very few people sought what used to be called a sex change, today the numbers of people seeking to “transition” to the other gender—particularly among children and teenagers—is becoming a flood. Much of the American medical establishment and the Biden administration claim that immediately yielding to children’s feelings that they are not the sex they were born is medically necessary, life-saving care. But is the science really settled? Recently, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, and other European countries hit the brakes on immediate gender affirmation in children—to the point that the UK shuttered its largest gender clinic for children as unsafe for patients. Even the World Health Organization—under political pressure, to be sure—just admitted that “the evidence base for children and adolescents is limited and variable regarding the longer-term outcomes of gender affirming care for children and adolescents.” The UK’s National Health Service concluded that instead of encouraging transition, “the clinical approach has to be mindful of the risks of an inappropriate gender transition and the difficulties that children may experience in returning to their original gender role.” Such “returns” are known as “de-transitioning,” a phenomenon that receives far too little attention, and when it does, too often sparks bitter denunciation of detransitioners among radical gender ideologues. My guest today has dedicated herself to raising the public profile of this important issue. Jennifer Lahl has directed, co-written, and co-produced three important documentaries on the subject. The first, Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender? explored the medical ethics of administering puberty blocking and cross-sex hormone in children. That film was quickly followed with the release of The Detransition Diaries: Saving our Sisters, which told the stories of three young women who transitioned to living life as if they were men—only to realize that they are, indeed, women. And. completing the trilogy, the just released, The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood, in which five young men describe their experiences with gender dysphoria and their ultimate pursuit to find peace in their natural masculine bodies. Among her many accomplishments, Lahl is a documentarian and founder of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Her writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community on various issues of bioethical concern. Board of Directors – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org). https://cbc-network.org/ The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood (youtube.com) The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org) The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org) Venus Rising Podcast: https://cbc-network.org/venus-rising-podcast/ WHO Admits Evidence Supporting ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ in Children Is ‘Limited and Variable’ | National Review
We are in the midst of a transgender moral panic. Where only a decade ago, very few people sought what used to be called a sex change, today the numbers of people seeking to “transition” is becoming a flood. It is one thing when adults decide to radically alter their bodies. But it is quite another to promote these radical “gender-affirming care” in children. And yet, the American medical establishment and the Biden administration state that the science in this regard is “settled” and that immediate affirmation is the only humane approach to treating children with gender dysphoria, interventions that can include puberty blocking, cross hormone therapy, and serious surgeries such as mastectomies. But is it settled science? Recently, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, and Finland have hit the brakes on immediate gender affirmation in children—to the point that the UK closed down its largest gender clinic as unsafe for patients. The NHS also concluded that instead of encouraging transition in minors, medics should take “a watchful approach” and that doctors have “to be mindful of the risks of an inappropriate gender transition and the difficulties that the child may experience in returning to the original gender role.” Such returns are known as “de-transitioning,” a phenomenon that receives far too little attention in the United States. But Wesley’s guest in this episode of Humanize is doing something about that. Jennifer Lahl directed, wrote, and co-produced an important documentary, The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters. Catherine Saxbe, who is board certified in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, wrote of the film: “In The Detransition Diaries, We follow several women unmasking a medical system that failed to treat the significant mental health problems which led them to seek radical gender transformation via hormones and amputations, but did not provide the happiness and self-acceptance they sought and were sold.” Lahl founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Her writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. https://cbc-network.org/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiBR4XvsCicbopYFciVxGrg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVhUoiXGWx8 https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/hundreds-of-teen-gender-affirming-mastectomies-each-year/ https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/seattle-childrens-hospital-performs-some-gender-affirming-surgeries-on-children-under-18/
Jennifer Lahl joins Wesley J. Smith to speak on her work with The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network and her films including “Breeders: A Subclass of Women?” and “Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender?” as well as other ethical and human rights threats promoted in our culture. In this week’s episode, Jennifer describes what she learned as a pediatric intensive care nurse that has contributed to her work defending human dignity as one of the world’s most prominent critics of radical reproductive technologies. She and Wesley also discuss the dangers presented to young women who donate their eggs for IVF, the eugenics implications of paying college women for their ova, and the exploitation of poor women in the surrogacy industry. They also delve into the dangers presented to children by the transgender movement. She also describes the strange political bedfellow coalition between feminists and pro-life women that has come together to protect those most at risk from Big Fertility and the transgender movement. Ms. Lahl is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking. She serves on the North American Editorial Board for Ethics and Medicine. In 2009, Lahl was associate producer of the documentary film Lines That Divide: The Great Stem Cell Debate, which was an official selection of the 2010 California Independent Film Festival. She made her writing and directing debut producing the documentary film Eggsploitation, which has been awarded Best Documentary by the California Independent Film Festival and has sold in more than 30 countries. An updated and expanded version of Eggsploitation was released in the Fall of 2013. She is also Director, Executive Producer, and Co-Writer of Anonymous Father’s Day (2011), a documentary film exploring the stories of women and men who were created by anonymous sperm donation. In 2014 she completed what is now a trilogy of films on the ethics of third-party reproduction with Breeders: A Subclass of Women?, which focuses on surrogacy. In July 2015, she released a documentary short Maggie’s Story, which follows one woman’s egg donation journey. Compassion and Choice: Denied (2016) is a short documentary on Physician Assisted Suicide. Lahl’s next feature film, #BigFertility was released in the Fall of 2018. Her most recent film, Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender? was released in June. All of her films are available for free streaming on The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network YouTube channel.
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In a previous episode of Humanize, Wesley interviewed Jennifer Lahl, director of The Detransition Diaries, which documents the stories of three young women who received what is called “gender-affirming care”—including a mastectomy in one case—and later realized that they were indeed the female sex they were born. That discussion focused mostly on the radical body-altering interventions that children who question their sex too often receive. In this follow-up interview, we take a broader look at “Gender ideology” generally, and how the West got caught up in a moral panic that has seen an explosion of both adult and child cases of gender dysphoria. The discussion ranges from describing the supposed “Seven Sexes” that gender ideologues argue exist, to the role of social media in this social contagion, to how the ideology represents the hegemony of feelings over facts, and the reasons children are the prime targets of gender warriors. It is a conversation you won’t want to miss. Jay Wesley Richards, Ph.D., is an analytic philosopher who focuses on the intersection of politics, philosophy, and religion. He is director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family and the William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow in Religious Liberty and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation. He is also a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and Executive Editor of The Stream. Jay is author or editor of more than a dozen books, including the New York Times bestsellers Infiltrated (2013) and Indivisible (2012); The Human Advantage; Money, Greed, and God, winner of a 2010 Templeton Enterprise Award; The Hobbit Party with Jonathan Witt; and Eat, Fast, Feast. He is also creator and executive producer of several documentaries, including three that have appeared widely on PBS. Jay’s articles and essays have been published in The Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Washington Post, The New York Post, Newsweek, Forbes, Fox News, National Review Online, The Hill, Investor’s Business Daily, Washington Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Huffington Post, The Federalist, The Daily Caller, and many other publications. Jay has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs, including CBS Evening News, MSNBC, Fox and Friends, PBS, CBN, TBN, and is a regular guest onEWTN. An experienced public speaker, he has spoken at academic conferences; college and university campuses in the United States, Europe, and Asia; many think tanks in the U.S. and Europe; public policy meetings; and on several occasions to members of the U.S. Congress and U.S. congressional staff. https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/the-battle-over-parents-rights-education-just-getting-started https://www.heritage.org/gender/commentary/california-attacks-parents-rights-under-the-guise-medical-care https://www.heritage.org/gender/commentary/did-american-academy-pediatrics-just-blink-gender-affirming-care-or-bluff
I have launched a new podcast through the Discovery Institute called Humanize — “where human rights meet human responsibilities” — in which I converse with thinkers and activists about issues germane to human dignity and our moral duties to each other, animals, and the environment. Read More ›