UW Ignores Misrepresentation of Puberty Blockers’ Research

Recently the University of Washington published research into whether hormones and puberty blockers improve the mental health of kids with gender dysphoria. According to the PR team for the university, pretty much every media outlet that covered the study, and the study’s authors themselves, the answer was yes. 

Except it wasn’t. The numbers actually revealed no difference between kids’ mental health before taking hormones and after a year of the treatment. At both moments in time, kids were suffering from dramatic mental health problems. If anything, the study suggested that kids who did not start taking the medications got a little worse. 

The university refused to officially respond when an independent journalist challenged their conclusions—though the study’s authors admitted their findings had been misrepresented. Internal emails showed the university’s communications team wasn’t concerned the story was not accurate. They liked that it was popular

Among the casualties of the politicizing of scientific research is public trust in our institutions. Still, the most vulnerable casualties are the kids. 

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

Central Arkansas Library System Continues Hosting Pro-LGBT Events Geared Toward Youth

The calendar for the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) shows multiple pro-LGBT activities scheduled at libraries in the coming weeks. Most of these events are designed for children and youth.

Here are a few of the events scheduled:

In August the Central Arkansas Library System defended its decision to host pro-LGBT programs geared toward youth, noting that the programs are funded in part by the Arkansas LGBTQ+ Advancement Fund at the Arkansas Community Foundation, the Alice L. Walton Foundation, Olivia and Tom Walton through the Walton Family Foundation, and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

In March Family Council reported that the Arkansas Community Foundation awarded a grant to the Central Arkansas Library System to set up a Gender and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) for teens and young adults. The money is part of a $1 million fund that the Walton Family Foundation created to support pro-LGBT groups in Arkansas.

The programs at the Central Arkansas Library System may not be overtly “sexual,” but they still promote LGBT ideology to children and teens.

Libraries don’t have to form Gender and Sexualities Alliances or organize pro-LGBT movie screenings to be successful. They can house books and promote reading and education without these types of events.

These activities are an unnecessary distraction for our public libraries.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

Judge Rules Expert Can Testify in Favor of SAFE Act

On Tuesday U.S. District Judge James Moody ruled that his court would accept expert testimony from professor Mark Regnerus, Ph. D., as part of the lawsuit over Arkansas’ Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.

The state legislature passed the SAFE Act last year. The law protects children in Arkansas from sex-reassignment procedures and hormones. Unfortunately, it has been tied up in federal court for the past 14 months.

Dr. Regnerus is a published author and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He has studied and written extensively about sexual orientation and the science of transgender medicine.

Dr. Regnerus is critical of the ways in which doctors today are pressured to help children with gender dysphoria “transition” from one sex to the other.

The plaintiffs who are suing to overturn the SAFE Act asked Judge Moody to exclude expert testimony from Dr. Regnerus. However, on Tuesday Judge Moody ruled that Dr. Regnerus could offer expert testimony.

In a declaration he filed in the SAFE Act lawsuit last year, Dr. Regnerus made several key points regarding minors with gender dysphoria, including the following:

  • The science surrounding gender identity remain in flux.
  • The demographics of transgender youth is changing in ways that scientists do not yet understand.
  • Randomized clinical trials do not support the adolescent gender transition processes that many doctors in America use.

Dr. Regnerus goes on to point out that the number of children who identify as transgender has inexplicably skyrocketed in Western countries over the past 20 years, and that this sudden rise is particularly pronounced among biological girls.

Dr. Regnerus’ words from last year are almost prescient given how the U.K.’s National Health Services recently closed its Tavistock gender clinic that for many years gave puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children.

The facility today faces the possibility of lawsuits from upwards of 1,000 families whose children were subjected to sex-reassignment despite an obvious lack of scientific evidence in favor of the procedures and inadequate mental health screenings for children with gender dysphoria.

The U.K. is not the only European country rethinking how it treats children who disagree with their biological sex.

Last year Karolinska Hospital in Sweden, one of the world’s most renowned medical establishments, decided to stop prescribing puberty-blockers to minors.

The hospital noted that giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children “should be regarded as experimental.”

Finland’s Council for Choices in Health Care has reached the same conclusion, writing, “In light of available evidence, gender reassignment of minors is an experimental practice.”

In July the U.S. Food and Drug Administration added a warning label to puberty blockers after six girls developed tumor-like masses in the brain, which caused vision problems.

The FDA never has approved puberty blockers for purposes of gender transition. Doctors are giving these drugs to children off-label.

All of this underscores why the Arkansas Legislature was right to pass the SAFE Act in 2021.

Evidence is mounting that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change procedures are dangerous for children.

With that in mind, our federal court system ultimately should uphold the SAFE Act and let Arkansas protect these children from life-altering procedures.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.