France could be the next European nation to ban the use of puberty blockers on gender-confused minors, further making the United States and Canada outliers in the intersection of medicine and LGBT ideology.
The European Conservative reported that members of the French center-right political party Les Républicains have just published a report condemning what it calls “one of the greatest ethical scandals in the history of medicine,” finding that medical professionals steeped in “trans-affirmative” ideology and influenced by LGBT activist groups, the latter of which have been actively encouraging young people to “transition” via social media.
Professor David Cohen, chief of child psychiatry department at Paris’s Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, estimates that as many as 16% of patients he saw about transition requests were younger than 12 years old. Psychologist Céline Masson and child psychiatrist Caroline Eliacheff argued that most children treated for “gender dysphoria” also have other serious issues, including depression, school dropouts, harassment, and attempted suicide, yet they are not offered alternative treatment paths before having transition pushed on them.
The findings are consistent with a significant body of evidence showing that “affirming” gender confusion carries serious harms, especially when done with impressionable children who lack the mental development, emotional maturity, and life experience to consider the long-term ramifications of the decisions being pushed on them, or full knowledge about the long-term effects of life-altering, physically transformative, and often-irreversible surgical and chemical procedures.
Studies find that more than 80% of children experiencing gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence and that even full “reassignment” surgery often fails to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide — and may even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.
In response to the Les Républicains report, French lawmakers have proposed legislation that would ban any gender transitions for any French citizen under age 18.
The development follows news that the British National Health Service (NHS) is formally ending the prescribing of puberty blockers to children with gender confusion after years of controversy over the practices of its scandal-ridden Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), operated by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.
In America, however, the Biden administration continues to give uncompromising support to all major aspects of the LGBT movement, including reopening the military to recruits afflicted with gender dysphoria, promoting gender ideology within the military (including “diversity” and drag events on military bases), holding White House events to “affirm transgender kids,” condemning state laws against underage transitions as “close to sinful,” promoting underage transitions (potentially at taxpayer expense) as a “best practice,” and trying to force federally funded schools to let males into female athletic competitions and restrooms.
This comes despite the fact that the administration’s own Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released a since-deleted report last year acknowledging that “lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults are more likely than straight adults to use substances, experience mental health conditions including major depressive episodes, and experience serious thoughts of suicide.”
Meanwhile, Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also continues to permit and promote child transitioning, including by launching a federal “2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan” that gives $100 million over five years to LGBT initiatives, and by enacting Bill C-4, which forbids treatment to help children overcome unwanted gender confusion.