Meeting with California State Senator Scott Wiener on "Gender Affirming Care" in San Francisco
A group of progressive parents and members of the LGB Communities met with Scott Wiener's staff to give testimony and evidence on the harms of pediatric medicalization of gay and vulnerable youth
In October of 2023, a mother of a trans identified child talked one on one with Scott Wiener at an event held at Manny’s in San Francisco. This mother briefly explained that her son was possibly gay, had mental health issues, and that he wanted to medicalize his trans identity. She asked for a meeting with him in his office with other progressive parents who were struggling to help their kids with mental health issues to become comfortable with their bodies and their sexuality without succumbing to trans medicalization. CA Sen. Scott Wiener agreed to hold such a meeting, however, he did not attend himself. A one hour meeting was held in his office between his staff member and 8 liberal / progressive parents and LGB adults from CA District 11. These are the notes from that meeting that were sent to his office with a request for a follow up meeting with the State Senator himself. After several attempts to hold the meeting, the meeting was ultimately denied by his office staffer with the following response: “Thank you for your patience while I processed your request. After having considered the information you presented supporting your position as expressed in testimonies, we feel that further discussion may not be fruitful at this time.”
The following is a record of that meeting, the evidence sent to his office, and articles that were given to his staff members:
Summary of meeting between parents and adults concerned with “gender affirming care” and pediatric medicalized transition with Scott Wiener’s LGBTQ Staff
LGBTQ Staff Member: Omar Rincón
4:00-5:00pm, Friday, November 3, 2023
CA Senator Scott Wiener’s SF District Office
455 Golden Gate Avenue
Suite 14800
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 557-1300
Today eight of us met with Mr. Omar Rincón, Senator Scott Wiener’s LGBTQ staffer, to discuss the effects on our adolescent and young adult children of the current model of Gender Affirming Care (GAC) and the lack of evidence to support it.
Six of us are parents of gender-confused kids who manifested Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), one of us is a lesbian mom of two teenagers who have had other complex mental health issues, and one is a bisexual woman who is concerned with how gender non-conforming young people are now viewed as trans.
Mr. Rincón took notes and asked us a few questions. All of the parents described our kids’ upbringing as being very supportive and progressive and that the Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria suddenly occurred at puberty. Despite having diagnosed mental health challenges, their trans identification was unquestioningly and automatically supported at school and by medical providers.
Many points and anecdotes were shared, including:
A mom of a formerly trans-identified son, and high school teacher, opened the meeting and described Rapid Onset Dysphoria and how the current medical model in California and the US is at odds with the current research coming out of Northern European countries that are taking steps to focus on pediatric mental health services and to slow down and even eliminate medical transition on young people. She discussed the comorbidities that affected her son prior to his trans identity: a sexual assault in middle school by a larger boy, body dysmorphia throughout puberty, and anxiety/panic attacks as he entered high school. She explained that his trans identity arose during the pandemic when he was on social media 24/7. She shared that he was encouraged to identify as a girl and post sexy pictures of himself wearing sexualized anime outfits on Reddit and that he was most definitely in contact with older male predators online. When the parents realized that Kaiser was going to affirm him with puberty blockers and cross sex hormones, they found a therapist who specializes in gender-confused kids. After 18 months he desisted from his trans identity and female name/pronouns and now refers to his time as trans as “having been in a cult that was difficult to escape from”. His mental health has recovered immensely and he has been able to process the shame of the sexual assault and the discomfort with his body and identity.
A mom who is trained in child development and works in trauma informed care detailed how quickly Kaiser affirmed her daughter with Testosterone. When prescribed Testosterone, Kaiser did not consider her co-existing mental health and neurodivergence: ADHD, autism, a personality disorder that results in distorted thinking, unstable moods, and impulsivity. When her daughter went in to get acne medication and told the doctor her pronouns were they/them, the practitioner immediately asked if she would like a referral to the gender clinic before even discussing the reason for the visit. There was no evidence-based protocol to assess her daughter’s mental health challenges, nor did the Kaiser doctor seem aware of the Kaiser psychiatric department’s diagnosis. Her daughter’s mental health issues persist in spite of the Testosterone and she currently plans on getting a double mastectomy, which Kaiser will provide without requiring any other assessment. This mother mentioned the list of negative consequences of prolonged Testosterone usage which will affect her daughter’s long-term health, including sexual dysfunction, chronic pain, and cancer. She is deeply concerned that emotionally fragile and vulnerable young people are being offered a one-size fits all approach to addressing the complex and diverse needs.
Two parents, a male social worker and a female high school teacher discussed how the current model of fast-paced gender-affirming care is a developmentally inappropriate treatment that does not conform to all of the safeguards that we have in place for young people at an institutional level to keep them from making choices that may affect their futures. Their daughter has mental health diagnoses, such as major depressive disorder, ADHD, and anxiety disorder. None of these issues were addressed by Kaiser when she announced that she was trans non-binary and requested Testosterone. Contrary to the research and common sense, mental health issues do not go away by affirming a new identity through a batch of trendy and experimental drugs. Their daughter was able to get a prescription for Testosterone after a minimal intake session at Kaiser, and currently believes that if her breasts are surgically removed, her mental health struggles will disappear.
A mom who works as a high school teacher discussed how asking any questions about kids being treated for dysphoria with medications is immediately labeled as “transphobic”. Just for asking questions. We keep hearing about gender-affirming care being “life saving”, but hormone blockers + cross hormones + surgeries actually have a detrimental impact on a person’s body: possible infertility, anorgasmia, shorter lifespan, cognitive impact, osteoporosis, to name a few. Simply said, it cannot be “transphobic” to worry about the lifelong medical care that a transitioned child will require. But what about their emotional well being? This mom pointed out that current research data does not show that suicidality rates improve with transition. This mom also shared that her older son was gay and had been allowed to dress in dresses and play with the toys of his own choosing throughout his childhood, as it should be. She worries that trans medicalization pushes kids to choose a binary and rigid identity, rather than to accept themselves as male and female who like a spectrum of different things. She discussed that even young kids today in elementary school are being shown the gender spectrum as Barbie vs. trucks, which teaches that boys who like dolls might really be “girls” and girls who like trucks might really be “boys.” This seems regressive and outdated. She stated that males should have the right to play with dolls and that girls should have the right to play with trucks without worrying about their biological sex. Having a variety of gender non-conforming behaviors or interests does NOT automatically make someone “trans”.
A bisexual woman shared about her mental health struggles as a gender non-conforming child and teenager who wished she had been a boy. She said that she had attempted suicide twice as a young person and that she was a tomboy from an early age. She preferred playing with boys and her friends were mostly boys. She is very concerned about young people today who will transition in order to alleviate the temporary discomfort of puberty and adolescence. She is grateful to have grown up as an intact woman, to have gotten through the challenges of adolescence and mental health struggles, and that she is happy and comfortable with her body today. She sees herself in the young people that are choosing to transition today, and she fears that she would have chosen the medicalized path herself had it been an option. She is grateful that trans medicalization was not available to her during her turbulent adolescence.
A lesbian mom described how young people need to have the ability to be flexible in their evolving identities and comfortable in their bodies. She grew up as a classic tomboy and she presents as a butch dyke and wears more masculine clothing. Yet she is a woman and she is happy to be a woman. But, today she is constantly assumed to be “trans” and people ask her for her pronouns. She feels that she is being erased as a lesbian and that this is a terrible predicament for young women, especially young lesbians, who should be encouraged to dress and be as they wish, rather than to believe that they must be men if they like stereotypically “male” things.
Mr. Rincón asked a question about schools. One of the high school teachers discussed that asking for pronouns and gender is a constant and everyday practice today in our schools. We discussed that the school personnel may be well-meaning, but that this questioning is making our kids believe that they should be thinking about their gender and gender expression constantly. A father brought up how forcing schools to lie to parents cannot be healthy for the child. If the school is truly concerned about the well-being of a child in the home, then social services should absolutely be contacted. The group discussed how schools are asking teachers to lie to and triangulate against parents, even though it is almost guaranteed that these parents will find out if the entire school community knows the new name and pronouns. The father said nothing good can come of such lies, and that gender identity issues are not the same as being gay. Of course, schools should not be outing gay students. Another teacher parent explained that schools don’t have records on their students’ sexual preferences and that being gay does not mean surgery or hormones. But trans identities not only go hand in hand with alteration of the body but also often occur alongside many other issues that require deep and meaningful attention. One teacher gave a brief summary of having been asked as a high school teacher to hide the new gender identity of a female student who had a diagnosed anxiety disorder. In her refusal, she stated that the parents cared enough about their daughter to seek psychiatric treatment, but that the school personnel made the assumption that her new gender identity was not an important aspect of her distress that should be shared with the parents. This makes no sense; schools that care about the mental health of their students must share this information with the parents. She stated that WPATH and psychologists have developed protocols that include the parents when a child transitions, and that the parents are an essential part of the process but that this is not being followed in many settings. Another teacher mom shared that many teachers and counselors who do not have teenage children believe that taking on new names and pronouns is a flexible accommodation for young people exploring their sexuality and expression. However, for kids who are gender questioning, it is linked with a persistent desire to medicalize. Young people with gender confusion cannot stop thinking about making their bodies match their current gender identity and they have not yet developed the ability to imagine their future selves and to realize that medicalized gender transition will not solve all of their problems.
The mother of the young woman currently on Testosterone remarked on the bills regarding giving consideration and preferential treatment toward the parent choosing medical transition in custody cases and foster care. She stated that in custody battles parents are likely to use the gender issue as a wedge to push for custody, and that the child’s wellbeing will be disregarded in such cases. She herself had been abused in her marriage and she believes that her ex-husband would have used the gender transition of their daughter to gain custody.
The non-parenting young woman also stated that in working with foster youth, one must center the child and find foster parents that will provide a caring home and that creating barriers for such relationships through stringent yet experimental and novel gender affirmation-only guidelines is taking away another safeguard for such children.
Toward the end of the meeting we emphasized that we must slow down and pause medicalization of gender identities. We need to return to “watchful waiting” and allow our young people to grow into themselves. Currently, we are rushing kids through transition and that there is an astonishingly high rate of young people, particularly girls, who are being convinced by online trans influencers, in schools, and by one another, that trans medicalization is the only way toward self-realization. By allowing this, we are hurting young people who may be gay or may be struggling with other issues or traumas. We also know that young people are seduced by novelty and trends, even those that are damaging to them, and through rushed treatment that doesn’t explore other deeper issues, they don’t have time to think and assess potential harm and regret. We compared bulimia, anorexia, and self-cutting to trans ideation and identities. The literature shows that all these body dysmorphias are easily socially transmitted among teenagers, especially girls, who are prone to displacing wider emotional distress by going to war with their bodies. We need to follow science and evidence-based research to reassess how we treat these kids, and that we absolutely must protect these kids from medical harm.
Mr. Rincón said that Senator Wiener had a meeting recently about Kaiser’s poor mental health services, that he had heard from others, and that he was working on it.
We asked for a second meeting to meet with Senator Wiener and share our concerns and stories directly with him. We said that Senator Wiener needs to understand the issues much more deeply, and that we are a group of leftist and liberals that have been part of the LGB movement in this city and in this country. We specifically want legislation to push the American Academy of Pediatrics to do evidence-based reviews on trans medicalization and we need legislation on mental health services and schools. We also discussed the rising waves of detransitioners who were medicalized too young and now live with long term medical issues that are not well-studied or remedied. We need legislation to support them as well.
Mr. Rincón responded that he is a note-taker and could not guarantee us another meeting. We asked him what we could do, and he did not give an answer. We decided to write a follow-up letter to urgently request such a meeting. Mr. Rincón gave no hint as to his own thoughts about what we had shared with him.
We provided a folder with 6 articles on gender medicine and evidenced-based protocols, 1 court case on the secret social transition of an 11 year old at a California public school, and 1 fact sheet on the effects of puberty blockers, Testosterone, and Estrogen.
End of meeting summary
Going into the meeting, we set the following purpose as a group:
Legislative purpose: Scott Wiener needs to champion gender evidence-based models for gender distressed young people, following the Northern European models which have all recently returned to watchful waiting and a focus on mental health care. In the same way that Senator Wiener has taken a nuanced and urgent approach to housing and transportation, young people, many of whom are gay, have complex trauma, have autism, or are struggling with mental health issues, need significantly improved mental health services and safeguards against early medical transition.
In addition, medical and mental health care must be provided for the growing numbers of detransitioners who are struggling with long-term health issues: difficult medication management due to lack of research in the area of long-term hormonal interventions on young people, trauma due to medical harm such as sterility, chronic chest pain, anorgasmia, urinary issues, early osteoporosis, menopause, cancer, and heart attacks.
Schools need to be able to comply with FERPA, which includes informing parents/guardians of mental distress which includes use of new pronouns, names, and opposite sex bathrooms. Psychological gender affirmation by a school without parents and medical practitioners is not advised under any gender care protocol.
Original meeting request email to Mr. Omar Rincón with links to articles to share with Senator Scott Wiener:
Omar,
To recap, I met Scott Wiener after the event at Manny’s on Wednesday night. I quickly told him who I was (a CTA teacher and leftist SF parent who shares his concerns about gay and lesbian youth) and I discussed my concerns about the rising rates of Trans identifying youth who seek gender medicalization as a solution to their sense of discomfort in their bodies, gender, and sexuality. I shared that it is not only the rightwing, but also the left and LGB parents who are very concerned about the ease with which our kids are being identified as trans, the social contagion that is happening in peer groups and online, and the medical procedures that are being done without the necessary psychotherapy work. I described my own son who went through a trans identifying phase that was extremely difficult, and how we, as his parents, had to go outside of the medical and school system to discover solutions and healing for our son to grow comfortable with his body and sexuality.
Several leftist San Franciscans who are concerned for our LGB and creative gender non–conforming youth would like to meet with Scott to discuss the issues that our kids have had with gender affirming medicalization and schools, and how we would like to lead the way in creative solutions to support these kids to have healthy and integrated minds and bodies.
We even have some ideas towards legislation. As there are a growing number of young people who are desisting and detransitioning from the medical harm done by medical affirming procedures, puberty blockers and cross sex hormones, we believe that there should be an expanded statute of limitations on medical malpractice suits. Another area that we are concerned with is SB957 - when a child determines that they were “born in the wrong body”, this often sets off a very difficult situation for the parents who are receiving a lot of different perspectives and recommendations for what to do. We are concerned that many of the parents who would prefer to have their child receive pediatric transition care in the form of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones may also be very ignorant about how many gay youth are gender non-conforming from a young age. The consequences of this bill are already being seen - we do not wish to witness unnecessary sterility and anorgasmia caused by medical interventions on gay youth, due to one parent wishing for a child of the opposite sex, and another parent who is comfortable with having a son or daughter who will be same sex attracted.
We would like to schedule a one hour long meeting with Scott Wiener, preferably in the late afternoon or evening, as some of us are teachers. Please let me know if there are some times that would work for his schedule.
Thank you,
Names redacted
Some research and notes on the evidence:
Medical Journals, Mainstream Media, Medical Experts:
Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement BMJ 2023; 380 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p382 (Published 23 February 2023) https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382
What America has got wrong about gender medicine | The Economist.pdf
The mental health establishment is failing trans kids, Erica Anderson and Laura Edwards-Leeper, Washington Post, November 24, 2021 https://wapo.st/3QGRtm5
Gender-Affirming Care is Dangerous. I Know Because I Helped Pioneer It.” Rittakerttu Kaltiala, The Free Press, October 30,2023
WSJ letter July 2023: “Youth Gender Medicine is Pushed Without Evidence”
UK NHS Cass Review: https://cass.independent-review.uk/publications/interim-report/
Suicidality rates are statistically higher post transition: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3043071/ In this often cited Swedish study, it was noted that suicidality rates for transexual adults experienced up to 19 times higher rates of suicidality than the general population years after transition. The conclusion is similar to the current practices being reinstated in Northern European countries such as England, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
“Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population. Our findings suggest that sex reassignment, although alleviating gender dysphoria, may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism, and should inspire improved psychiatric and somatic care after sex reassignment for this patient group.”
Planned parenthood expose: Planned Parenthood has been medicalizing teenagers without proper assessments or follow up care. https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/planned-parenthood-is-helping-teenagers-transition-after-a-30-minute-consult-parents-and-doctors-are-sounding-the-alarm/
Dr. Erica Anderson, a transwoman psychologist who specializes in gender care, discusses why pediatric affirmation has to change to emphasize psychological care:
Jamie Reed’s expose on gender care clinics in the US: I thought I was saving trans kids, now I am blowing the whistle: Jamie Reed’s testimony on what is actually happening at Gender care clinics in the U.S. (gay woman married to a transman)
Amicus Brief: Case filed against a school for socially transitioning an 11 year old girl without the parents’ consent or consultation.
“Outbreak: On transgender teens and psychic epidemics” by Lisa Marchiano (full article)
Pages 345-366 | Published online: 06 Oct 2017 Psychological Perspectives
A Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thought, Volume 60, 2017 - Issue 3: Gender Diversity
Twitter threads by experts (many include citations):
Dangers of cross-sex hormones:
UCSF Jack Turban’s work discredited by an MD:
And other problems with the bad studies:
21 Gender experts question the pediatric affirmation model.
Books:
Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children by Hannah Barnes
Tomboy by Lisa Selin Davis
Websites:
Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine: https://segm.org/
A compendium of current articles, research, and policies, as well as a guide to the history of gender medicine and surgeries. Analyses of current theories, trends, treatments, and laws in transgenderism and the rise of gender dysphoric children and adolescents in Western countries.
Videos:
No Way Back: Documentary following the lives of 6 detransitioners Trailer for documentary
Stunted by Transition: Interview with a detransitioning effeminate young gay man
Laura Becker: Interview with a detransitioning young female artist
Notes:
Mental health comorbidities and pediatric cross sex gender affirmation. The majority of young people who are presenting with gender dysphoria have other struggles that need to be attended to, such as internalized homophobia, anxiety or depressive disorders, internet / porn addiction, autism, body dysmorphia common to puberty, self-harming behaviors, and prior trauma. Many of these young people are getting quickly affirmed by medical practitioners, therapists, and even Planned Parenthood.
There is a lack of quality assessment and care for young people with mental health, sensory, cognitive disorders as well as gender dysphoria. Medical and mental health practitioners, and schools have put an outsized emphasis on gender affirmation with young people when there is a lack of quality assessment and little evidence that it alleviates the emotional distress of young people in the long term. They fail to follow their own standards of practice when it comes to other physical and mental health assessment and treatment. They don’t look at comorbidities, including significant developmental disorder, mental health issues, substance use disorder, and trauma, much less treat them before embarking on medical pathway for gender dysphoria or gender transition. They also disregard parents who are the only people who understand the whole scope of a child’s needs and history. Quality mental health treatment for young people is centered on inclusion of the family and the parent, a child’s primary resource for wellbeing. Our children need time and appropriate support to be allowed to sort out their identities and emotions but instead they are being fast tracked.