Rachel Levine: The ‘Wheels Will Turn’ on Gender Transitions for Minors

The “wheels will turn” on widely accepting transgender transitions for children, President Biden’s transgender Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Rachel Levine said during a February discussion at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.

Levine, a biological man who believes he is a woman, said during the Pediatric Grand Rounds session last month that “gender-affirming care is medical care.” Levine, born Richard, claimed during the discussion that children who had their gender confusion affirmed “actually have excellent mental health outcomes.”

Levine claimed “numerous peer reviewed journals” indicate that “there is nothing inherent with being transgender that predisposes youth to negative mental health outcomes.” Rather, he blamed the negative mental health outcomes of those struggling with gender dysphoria on “harassment,” “bullying” and “discrimination.”

“Transgender youth who are supported by their parents, school and community who receive evidence based standard of care treatment actually have excellent mental health outcomes,” Levine claimed, declaring that “gender-affirming” care — the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures to “affirm” an individual’s chosen gender — is “medical care,” “mental health care,” and “suicide prevention care.”

He emphasized that the Biden administration strongly supports transgender youth and their desire to alter their physical bodies in the name of affirmation and predicted that “the wheels will turn on this” eventually, normalizing the mutilation of children’s bodies in the name of acceptance and affirmation.

“I think that it’s not going to be politically advantageous. It wasn’t particularly in 2022. And so I think that as we look to all the different elections in 2024, I think the next two years are going to be challenging,” Levine said.

“But I am positive and optimistic and hopeful that the wheel will turn after that and that this issue won’t be as politically and socially such a minefield,” he added.

Levine also cited several organizations — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association — asserting they “agree gender affirming care is medically necessary safe and effective for transgender and non-binary children and adolescents.”

“And the process is tailored to individuals of course, with parental input. We do not need laws that dictate principles of transgender medical care,” he continued, contending that the focus should be on dispelling what he considers to be “myths” about these so-called treatments.

Levine’s remarks stand in sharp contrast to the determination made by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which actually found that these “treatments” — from cross-sex hormones to surgeries — are not “safe or effective” but fundamentally “experimental and investigational.”

“Studies presenting the benefits to mental health, including those claiming that the services prevent suicide, are either low or very low quality and rely on unreliable methods such as surveys and retrospective analyses, both of which are cross-sectional and highly biased,” the document, challenging the “science” of transgenderism, noted.

Levine’s remarks come roughly a year after he was named one of USA Today’s “Women of the Year.” Similarly, President Joe Biden’s administration this month also honored a biological male — Alba Rueda — with an International Woman of Courage Award.

 A study from the U.K. nonprofit Sex Matters found that gender-affirming “care” is not based science and that benefits are “no greater than a placebo effect.”