Trump is still falsely claiming that children are undergoing gender-affirming surgery at school
Donald Trump is aiming to secure second term in the White House (Getty)
Donald Trump has repeated his false claims that pupils in the US are undergoing gender-affirming surgeries during the school day, further enflaming conservative fears that children are being “groomed” to become transgender.
The Republican presidential nominee made the comments initially at a Moms for Liberty event last weekend, where, when asked about the number of youngsters coming out as trans, he replied: “The transgender thing is incredible. Think of it: your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child.”
Trump repeated the wild claims on Saturday (7 September) at a rally in Wisconsin, saying: “[Vice-president] Kamala [Harris] supports states being able to take minor children… away from their parents, perform sex-change operations, and send them back home.
“Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say: ‘Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school’, and your son comes back with a brutal operation? Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?”
When asked about the comments by CNN, Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice admitted the accusations were false but said she was “thankful to President Trump” for saying it because it drew attention to the topic of social transition in schools – when students change their presentation or pronouns.
“It grabbed your attention and we’re talking about it now, and that makes me very happy,” she said.
Medical experts, of course, have lined up to debunk Trump’s nonsensical rambling.
Speaking to CNN, Dr Meredithe McNamara, an assistant professor of paediatrics at the prestigious Yale School of Medicine, who specialises in adolescent medicine, pointed out that everything Trump said was incorrect.
“Surgery of any kind happens in a qualified medical centre, not in a school,” she said. “Of course, parents are the medical decision-makers for their kids, especially when it comes to gender-affirming care.”
Kate King, the president of the National Association of School Nurses, told NBC News that when school nurses want to give a child even over-the-counter medication they need permission from parents and a physician.
“There is no way that anyone is doing surgery in a classroom in schools,” she said.
Dr Laura Taylor, the medical director of the gender-affirming care programme at the University of Southern California, also told CNN any such treatment “legally requires the consent of (both) parents/legal guardians and assent of an adolescent under 18”.
The decision to start hormones and/or have surgery would happen only after consultation with an interdisciplinary team for a psycho-social assessment, she added.
“The assessment includes understanding the dysphoria related to gender incongruence (the distress caused by the physical characteristics that do not match the person’s identity), how long it has been present, excluding other reasons to account for the dysphoria, and making sure the adolescent and family can provide informed consent.”
Trump’s comments, seemingly believed by some conservative voters, come as gender-affirming care is being made increasingly inaccessible in several Republican-controlled states.
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