Senate HELP Committee Holds Bipartisan Hearing on Gender Transition Procedures for Minors

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing Wednesday on concerns over gender transition procedures for minors. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) argued that healthcare professionals and their organizations profit from recommending and executing such procedures.

He called 21-year-old Chloe Cole, who detransitioned after a double mastectomy at age 15, as a witness. Cole testified that she had no breasts because they were replaced with scars. She said she had not even had her first kiss or practiced driving before the surgery.

She added that she will not be able to breastfeed even if she is able to have children. Cole said she was not a sick boy trapped in a girl’s body. She argued that some doctors prey on children and that any member of Congress who defends the procedures should have to look parents in the eye and explain why their child’s body is now a commodity.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said the hearing was a waste of time. He stated that the issue impacts at most less than one hundredth of 1% of teenagers throughout America and zero kids under the age of 12.

Sanders said gender-affirming care should be between doctors, patients, and parents, not politics. Sanders called on Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, who testified that parents, not politicians, know their children best. Minter said the government is attempting to rob families of making decisions about their own children.

Dr. Kurt Miceli, psychologist and chief medical officer at Do No Harm, testified that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health is not driven by science, but by ideology. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Sen.

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) also attended the hearing.