Vermont poised to let kids, not parents, make gender decisions

By Tony Perkins

Most schools can’t give a child an aspirin without getting a parent’s OK. But in Vermont, kids are about to get a whole lot more than Tylenol. Under a new rule, they’ll be able to get entirely new bodies — in some cases, without ever calling home.

If you thought the war on parents’ rights was bad now, just wait. The Green Mountain State just dropped a massive bombshell in the transgender fight.

According to local media, Vermont’s health insurance regulators are about to overhaul the state’s Medicaid rules, forcing taxpayers to cover the cost of everything from genital surgery to a mastectomy for minors.

Public domain

While Vermont insists on locking kids into a new gender identity, surgeons like Dr. Miroslav Djordjevic — who do this kind of reassignment surgery for a living — are horrified that anyone would push children to embrace such fleeting feelings.

If the new guidelines go into effect, kids under the age of 18 would be able to undergo radical procedures—paid for by Vermonters.

And that’s not the worst of it. With a simple judge’s note, they can bypass mom and dad altogether.

That’s because the state is also adding language for a judicial bypass, which, as most pro-lifers know, is how the left manages to get around parental consent laws on abortion.

Now, with the stroke of a judge’s pen, young people can keep their parents in the dark, as they choose from 16 different ways to disfigure their bodies.

Dr. Rachel Inker, who heads up the Transgender Health Clinic at the Community Health Centers of Burlington, cheered the move. “Having young people have to wait until they were 21 just didn’t really make any sense.”

Tell that to the American College of Pediatricians, which has been warning about rushing minors into these life-altering decisions for years.

It’s “child abuse,” the American College of Pediatricians insists, especially since “98 percent of gender confused boys and 88 percent of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.”

While Vermont insists on locking them into this new identity, surgeons like Dr. Miroslav Djordjevic — who do this kind of reassignment surgery for a living — are horrified that anyone would push children to embrace these fleeting feelings.

It’s a mistake, he insists. If the age limit for surgeries is reduced, he says, he would refuse his services.

“I’m afraid what will happen five to 10 years later with this person,” he says. “It is more than about surgery; it’s an issue of human rights. I could not accept them as a patient as I’d be afraid what would happen to their mind.”

In a lengthy article with the National Post about the growing number of his patients with regrets, Djordjevic admits he has “deep reservations” about treating children with hormonal drugs before they reach puberty. Surgery is simply a bridge too far.

What these kids need, said one of the foremost experts in the field—Johns Hopkins’ Dr. Paul McHugh—is psychological help and guidance, “not a surgeon with drugs, scalpel, forceps, and sutures. They need ‘evidence-based care,’ not ideological support from left-wing activists and those who suffer the same mental illness.”

Take it from these teens who formerly identified as transgender: America needs to step back from the activism, the ideologies, and other voices, and consider what we’re doing to our children. Because if Vermont isn’t thinking about the risks, someone has to.

Tony Perkins is president of the Family Research Council. Originally published in Tony Perkins’ Washington Update, which is written with the aid of Family Research Council senior writers.

Image courtesy of Public domain

8 thoughts on “Vermont poised to let kids, not parents, make gender decisions

  1. This is an outstanding article — thanks to True North for sharing. Somehow I don’t expect vtdigger or Seven Days to give much breathing room to this view. But we really must thank this overreaching bully legislature for revealing just how toxic and perverse the progressive agenda is. We get another whole year of examples — carbon tax, minimum wage, more restrictions on farmers and gun control. Then we vote. Maybe when taxes are high enough, and children run everything, the woods will rouse from slumber. Let us pray.

  2. What are they thinking in Montpelier?? Why do we the people NEVER get to vote on things like these?? They just push through this and shove it down our throats. Well Now is the time for phone calls and letters to Montpelier – govenor’s office – and don’t let up! Keep calling. I can’t believe this !!!

    • Phone calls? Letters? E-mails? NO. People Power. March right up to the State House and physically remove these ‘things’ . These ‘legislators’ are freaks; freaks to even suggest such horror. And it IS horror! There is something wrong with these people. Wrong and evil. Vermonters……..do something.

    • Unfortunately, in a way we DO vote on these issues when we elect our representatives. In today’s crazy world it behooves us to know the moral, political, and social orientation of candidates… and whose interests they serve. It can’t just be popularity. For me, I am returning to the idea of more control and legislation in the OPPOSITE direction. You raise a good question. Why are important issues that effect our lives NOT decided by general consensus? The obvious reason is that we have become lazy and complacent over time. Okay, I guess, in the previous political climate. But not anymore. I would love and support a proposed bill that put control back in the hands of the people. Remember this, though. The leaders we have are a reflection of our states’ culture. We need to change that at the ballot box, if anywhere. Lord, help us all.

  3. This is very disturbing. We should impeach if it’s possible, every legislature that voted for this.
    Are these people insane. Letting kids control their own gender identity. They don’t even know what classes they want to take in school or have any responsibility whatsoever, but they can change any sex identity they desire on the taxpayers dime. I don’t think so.
    That might be the last straw for me to say. Screw you Vermont. You won’t be my State anymore.
    I still can’t fathom this. It is unbelievable.

  4. Let’s put it this way: if some liberal POS went and had my kid’s sex changed without my knowledge……..God help them.

  5. Here’s some more legislative genius coming from our Liberal Masterminds in Montpelier ??

    Most schools can’t give a child an aspirin without getting a parent’s OK. But in Vermont’s
    Medicaid rules,” forcing ” taxpayers to cover the cost of everything from genital surgery to
    a mastectomy for minors……….Who do these people think they are, making these types of
    decisions on children, yes children.

    And why would any parent with a child of school age allow this disgusting agenda to be allowed
    making their child into some kind of freak because they have had there young minds twisted by
    a liberal agenda and they wonder why teen suicide is out of control, kids are kinds with fragile
    minds……

    As a taxpayer, I don’t want my tax dollars being used for this nonsense, we have real issues in
    the state like unfunded liabilities ” Debt ” decaying infrastructure drug issues and now you want
    to fund nonsense !!

    What a disgusting agenda, what we need is a little social justice to these people, maybe a
    little batch of ” Tar & Feathers to these masterminds !!

    , kids
    are about to get a whole lot more than Tylenol. Under a new rule, they’ll be able to get entirely new bodies — in some cases, without ever calling home.

  6. This is out of control liberalism and the people responsible ought to be fired.

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