Trump's Gender Surgery Claim: Fact or Fiction?

Former President Donald Trump is back at it, spreading a story that US schools are secretly taking kids for gender-affirming surgeries without their parents' permission. This idea first popped up in late August, and it was quickly proven false by CNN and others in September. But here we are in October, just before Election Day, and Trump is pushing this claim again. Last week, while chatting about education policy at a New York City barbershop, Trump said, “No transgender, no operations — you know, they take your kid — there are some places, your boy leaves for school, comes back a girl. Okay? Without parental consent. ” He even suggested it’s happening in certain areas, but he didn’t name them. During an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, he repeated the claim, saying, “the transgender operations: where they’re allowed to take your child when he goes to school and turn him into a female — without parental consent. ” Let’s set the record straight: there’s no evidence showing that schools in any part of the US are sending children for gender-affirming surgeries without their parents' consent. In states where these surgeries are legal for minors, parental consent is always required. Experts confirm this — they say it simply doesn’t happen in America.

Trump’s campaign and several conservative groups couldn’t find any proof for his claim. Doctors like Landon Hughes from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Dr. Meredithe McNamara from the Yale School of Medicine said that no child receives gender-affirming surgeries at schools, and of course, parents are involved in any medical decisions for their kids. For minors, parental consent is a must for both surgical and non-surgical gender-affirming treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Medical guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health emphasize parental consent. Surgeries like top surgery (breast or chest procedures) and bottom surgery (genital reconstructive procedures) are rare among minors. These procedures are only considered after a thorough evaluation by a medical team, ensuring the child’s well-being and the family’s informed consent. When asked for evidence supporting Trump’s claim, his campaign spokesperson didn’t provide any. Instead, she shared articles about the broader debate on how schools handle gender identity issues.

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