Fact check: Trump revives lie that schools secretly send children for gender-affirming surgeries

CNN
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Former President Donald Trump continues to repeat his lie that American schools are sending children for gender-affirming surgeries without their parents’ consent — even though his own presidential campaign could find no example showing this has happened.

Trump debuted the story in late August. It was debunked by CNN and others in early September. But Trump, whose campaign did tens of millions of dollars spent about transgender ads late in the campaign has revived the story in October as Election Day approaches.

Trump resubmitted the claim last week when discussing education policy during a haircut in New York City filmed by Fox News: “No transgender, no surgeries – you know, they take your kid – there are some places, your boy goes to school and comes back as girl. Okay? Without parental consent.” He added: “When I was initially told this was actually happening, I said, you know, it’s an exaggeration. No: it happens. It happens. There are areas where it happens.”

Trump did not name these so-called “areas.” But him filed the claim again during his Friday job interview with prominent podcast host Joe Rogan: “Who would want – there are so many – transgender surgeries: where they can take your child when he goes to school and turn him into a man – into a woman – without parental consent.”

Facts first: Trump’s claim stays false. There is no evidence that schools in any part of the United States sent children for gender confirmation surgeries without their parents’ consent, or performed unapproved gender confirmation surgeries on site; none of that is ‘allowed’ anywhere in the country. Even in the states where gender confirmation surgery is legal for people under 18, with parental consent is required before a minor can undergo such a procedure.

Trump’s campaign and four conservative groups contacted by CNN in September about Trump’s claim could find no evidence of it. Experts on transgender health care said the situation Trump described simply doesn’t happen in this country.

Landon Hughesa postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and co-author of a recent study about the prevalence of gender confirmation surgeries in the U.S., said in a September email: “There are no cases of children receiving surgeries or accessing surgeries from their schools.” Hughes added: “No health care provider in the US would operate on a minor under the direction of a school, let alone without parental consent.”

‘Of course everything in this statement is untrue’ Dr. Meredithe McNamarasaid an adolescent medicine doctor at the Yale School of Medicine in a September email. “Of course, surgeries of any kind are done in a qualified medical center and not in a school. Of course, parents are the medical decision makers for their children, especially when it comes to gender-affirming care.”

Minors also require parental consent in the US for non-surgical gender-affirming medical treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Various guidelines and standards for medical care for transgender adolescents from, among others, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health Explain that parental consent is required.

“Any gender-affirming medical or surgical care would legally require the consent of (both) parents/legal guardians, and the consent of an adolescent under the age of 18,” Dr. Laura Taylormedical director of the gender-affirming care program at the University of Southern California, in a September email. “This includes puberty blockers, hormones and surgery.”

There are no definitive national figures on the number of minors receiving care gender confirmation surgeriesincluding breast or breast procedures, often called “top surgery,” and genital reconstructive procedures, often called “bottom surgery.” But the limited data available makes that possible It clearly that the vast majority of such operations are performed on adults.

Taylor outlined a lengthy process before a minor would undergo gender confirmation surgery.

“In adolescents, the decision to start hormones and/or undergo surgery would be made after consult with an interdisciplinary team for a psychosocial assessment,” she said, being the daring type of her. “The assessment includes understanding the dysphoria associated with 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 that may be causing the dysphoria and ensure that the adolescent and family can give informed consent.”

When Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt was asked in September for any evidence to support Trump’s claim that schools secretly perform gender-affirming surgeries for children, she provided no evidence. Instead, she sent out a series of articles about the broader debate about how schools handle gender identity issues.