Biological male and Assistant Health Secretary to the Biden Administration Rachel Levine told MSNBC on Monday that minors should have access to medical gender transitions.
Asked by Andrea Mitchell about the op-ed Levine wrote in the Miami Herald: “You asked people to make medical decisions on real data and compassion, rather than slander,” Levine made the unsubstantiated claim that most children with gender dysphoria experience more mental health issues for unrelated reasons.
“They have more mental health issues but there’s nothing inherent about being transgender or gender-diverse which would predispose youth to depression or anxiety.”
She said that any anxiety felt was due to bullying and “politically motivated attacks through state actions.”
“This is not based on data. These actions are politically motivated,” said Levine.
“We really want to base our treatment and to affirm and to support and empower these youth, not to limit their participation in activities such as sports, and even limit their ability to gender affirmation treatment in their state,” she said.
Biden Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine: We need to “empower” kids to go on puberty blockers and get sex reassignment surgery. pic.twitter.com/CRPRaFYtzK
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 18, 2022
“I don’t want to limit” the participation of biologically male minors who identify as transgender in female sports, or “even limit their ability to get gender-affirmation treatment in their state,” Levine said, according to The Post Millennial.
According to Fox 4 Beaumont: Currently, four states – Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona and Texas – have passed restrictions prohibiting minors from receiving certain gender transition treatments. However, three of those state laws (Alabama, Arkansas and Texas) have been blocked by court rulings, and Arizona’s law does not go into effect until next year.
In a memo last month, the Biden DOJ said it has been filing “Statements of interest” in lawsuits across the country that prohibit minors from receiving “gender affirming care.”
“The U.S. Department of Justice (the Department) is committed to ensuring that transgender youth, like all youth, are treated fairly and with dignity in accordance with federal law,” the Biden DOJ wrote in a March letter to state attorneys general. “State laws and policies that prevent parents or guardians from following the advice of a healthcare professional regarding what may be medically necessary or otherwise appropriate care for transgender minors may infringe on rights protected by both the Equal Protection and the Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
