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.
