***NEWS RELEASE***
For Immediate Release
February 21, 2020
Eagle Forum Supports the
Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act (VCAP)
Sen. Shay Shelnutt and Rep. Wes Allen have introduced the Alabama Vulnerable Child and Compassion Protection Act (VCAP). VCAP prohibits anyone from prescribing, dispensing or administering puberty-suppressing drugs or cross-sex hormones to healthy children. It prohibits anyone from performing surgical procedures on an otherwise healthy child for the purpose of affirming gender dysphoria. It also requires that parents be notified by school officials if those officials learn that a child has gender dysphoria.
Doctors across the nation are giving minors, (even those in elementary school) puberty blockers and cross sex hormones. Some doctors are even amputating healthy non-diseased body parts. In some states 13 year old girls receiving double mastectomies and boys as young as 15 are being castrated. Eunie Smith, President of Eagle Forum explains, “We support this bill because it protects vulnerable children who are suffering from gender dysphoria from irreversible medical procedures that will alter their bodies for life. The brain’s frontal lobe that is responsible for emotional expression, problem solving, memory, language, judgment, and sexual behaviors is not fully developed until age 25. Therefore, many minors are making life-altering decisions which may render them sterile for life, cause serious bone loss, and decreased cognitive development from hormone therapy. Other harmful effects are not fully known. Children must be helped; not harmed.”
Up to 98% of children who struggle with their sex as a boy or a girl, come to accept their sex by adulthood if allowed to go through natural puberty. [i] However, studies show that 100% of children who use puberty blockers will go on to use cross-sex hormones, leaving them sterile. [ii] The EMLALA clinic in Birmingham administer puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors, and gender dysphoric patients may also be referred to surgeons outside of the clinic.
Eagle Forum Executive Director Becky Gerritson says, “This legislation is necessary for many reasons. One is that the long-term effects of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones have not been studied.[iii] Another vital statistic is that after the sex reassignment surgery, transgender identified people are nearly 20 times more likely to die by suicide than the general public.”[iv]
Mrs. Gerritson also cited Dr. Michelle Cretella, Executive Director of the American College of Pediatricians who emphasized “a recent article published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, in which psychologist Dr. James Cantor discredits the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) endorsement of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for minors as a grave misrepresentation of science. [emphasis added] Upon reviewing every reference of the AAP statement Dr. Cantor concluded, ‘[The] AAP’s statement is a systematic exclusion and misrepresentation of entire literatures. Not only did AAP fail to provide compelling evidence, it failed to provide the evidence at all. Indeed, AAP’s recommendations are despite the existing evidence.’”
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[i] Michael K Laidlaw, et al., “Letter to the Editor: ‘Endocrine Treatment of Gender-Dysphoric/Gender-Incongruent Persons: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline’, ” The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 104, no. 3 (March, 2019): 686–687, https://academic.oup.com/ jcem/article-abstract/104/3/686/5198654?redirectedFrom=fulltext (“Children with GD will outgrow this condition in 61-98% of cases by adulthood.”).
[ii] AL DeVries, et al., “Puberty suppression in adolescents with gender identity disorder: a prospective follow-up study,” Journal of Sexual Medicine, 8, no. 8, (August, 2011); 2276-83, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20646177.
[iii] Paul W. Hruz, et al., “Growing Pains: Problems with Puberty Suppression in Treating Gender Dysphoria,” New Atlantis, Spring 2017, https:// thenewatlantis.com/publications/growing-pains, (“Whether puberty suppression is safe and effective when used for gender dysphoria remains unclear and unsupported by rigorous scientific evidence.”); See also: Johanna Olson-Kennedy, et al., “Health considerations for gender non-conforming children and transgender adolescents,” UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender Health, accessed on February 21, 2019, https://transcare.ucsf.edu/guidelines/youth, (“While clinically becoming increasingly common, the impact of GnRH analogues administered to transgender youth in early puberty and <12 years of age has not been published.”).
[iv] Cecilia Dhejne, et al., “Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden,” PLoS One 6, no. 2 (2011): e16885, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016885.
