K ansas’s Democratic governor Laura Kelly has carefully crafted her political reputation as a self-proclaimed “middle of the road,” “moderate” leader. Now in her sixth year in office, with Republican supermajorities in both legislative chambers, she seems as determined as ever to see just how far she can push the boundaries of what those monikers truly mean.
The governor’s recent veto of the Help Not Harm Act, which protects vulnerable Kansas kids from the life-altering effects of medicalized gender transition involving surgeries, hormones, and drugs, could be her most radical move yet. As more nations, states, and medical organizations reverse course on this dangerous experimentation on children, her veto is the exact opposite of moderate leadership. It’s certainly nowhere near the middle of the road.
Governor Kelly’s veto could not have come at a more inopportune time for the narrative she supports. Just days earlier, the United Kingdom released its much-awaited report on the country’s medicalized gender-transition treatments for children. The Cass Review was unequivocal: Such treatments are based on “remarkably weak evidence,” and treatment guidelines by the World Professional Association of Transgender Healthcare “lack developmental rigor” despite their wide influence.
The Cass Review is precisely the kind of evidence-driven, compassionate analysis that children deserve. It also justifies the U.K.’s decision to shut down the Tavistock gender clinic and restrict medicalized gender-transition treatments. The U.K. now joins a growing number of other European countries on this path. As the medical nonprofit Do No Harm has shown, European nations are rushing to protect children because science and common sense demand a more holistic approach to the underlying mental-health conditions that often accompany gender confusion. Surgery, puberty blockers, and hormones do nothing to address those issues.
A growing number of U.S. states are protecting children as well. Despite our divided government, Kansas must be careful not to fall behind this mounting consensus. Kansas’s Help Not Harm Act, passed overwhelmingly in both legislative chambers, will protect at-risk kids by preventing medical providers from giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and from performing genital surgeries on children. These invasive and irreversible treatments can lead to a lifetime of both physical- and mental-health complications to which children are incapable of meaningfully consenting.
Proponents of medicalized gender transition of minors, however, operate under a very different narrative. They use a slew of falsehoods to justify and even promote this continued endangerment of children. Their fearmongering, to which Governor Laura Kelly has subscribed, couldn’t be further from the facts.
In reality, protecting children from medicalized gender transition prevents suicide. Trans activists claim the opposite by pointing to their own surveys, which purport to show suicide is rampant among children with gender confusion. However, psychologists have shown that these self-reported online surveys, besides being entirely non-randomized and unscientific, serve up predetermined results and broad assumptions to fit a desired narrative.
These biased researchers ignore that children subject to medicalized gender transition actually commit suicide at higher rates. This is because these children aren’t receiving help for their very real underlying mental-health and neurological conditions, as well as complex emotional trauma. There is a very high correlation between diagnoses of depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and autism among children who think they are transgender.
Medical professionals and studies tell us that mental-health care must be the top priority for these vulnerable children instead of pushing a lifetime sentence of hormones, drugs, and body-altering surgeries. Kansas legislators were careful to preserve access to mental-health treatment in the Help Not Harm legislation for that reason.
Every day the Help Not Harm law goes unpassed, more Kansas kids are put at risk of the irreparable aftereffects of medicalized gender interventions. Research tells us that up to 95 percent of children who think they’re transgender ultimately change their minds after going through puberty. Sadly, kids are pushed into making a choice they could regret for the rest of their lives. Puberty blockers, used off-label on gender-confused children, are often touted as an innocuous “pause on puberty.” However, research tells us the consequences of these drugs are more permanent than a simple “pause.” Side effects can include a decrease in puberty-related growth spurts, limiting an individual’s adult height, and an increased risk of osteoporosis.
Cross-sex hormones, often the next step, carry their own risk of permanent changes, including irreversible infertility, a deepened voice for females, and hair growth. Once these effects begin, they cannot be reversed. They also carry a hefty list of dangerous side effects, such as coronary-artery disease, stroke, hypertension, blood clots, and severe liver dysfunction. Surgery, by its very nature, leaves permanent scars. A double mastectomy or hysterectomy performed on a minor child not only results in irreparable harm but also offers the false hope of happiness with a “new body.” With every new drug and procedure, physical- and mental-health challenges can worsen. And reversing course is longer an option.
As state legislators, we protect Kansas children with age requirements in many circumstances. Kids cannot drive until they’re 16, use tanning beds until they’re 18, or buy alcohol or cigarettes until they reach 21. These things can cause harmful, irreversible outcomes for minors, so the state has placed age restrictions on access. Child-welfare laws and child-labor laws also exist to protect children. It’s hard to understand why hormones and surgeries that result in harmful and irreversible outcomes, such as sterilization, would be held to a different, lesser standard.
Kansas kids also deserve protection from extreme medical experiments pushed by activists that are based on idealogy rather than science. Children aren’t guinea pigs. Each child is a unique and irreplaceable human being deserving of compassionate care and safety.
Poll results vary but consistently show that most Americans, across party lines, agree that minor children should be protected from the harm and irreversible consequences of medicalized gender-transition interventions. Common sense tells us children aren’t able to fully grasp the permanence of such decisions. It’s widely known that minors cannot meaningfully consent, either cognitively or legally, to these life-altering hormones and drastic surgeries, as well as — perhaps most important — to their long-term ramifications. Science shows that kids’ brains may not be fully developed until the age of about 25, which could be over ten years away for these vulnerable teens.
With her reckless veto and acquiescence to the most radical in the transgender movement, Governor Kelly has not only abandoned the middle of the road. She has also abandoned Kansas children and families. That’s why, in the coming days, the state legislature will vote to override her veto to enshrine these protections for the children of our state into law.