Here in the US, we are waiting to see how the Supreme Court will rule on a case involving children who believe they are transgender taking drugs and undergoing surgery to irrevocably change their bodies. We pray the court makes a decision in accord with biblical truth and observational science (and common sense!). In two other places—the UK and Alberta, Canada—such rulings have already been passed down, which is a reason to praise the Lord.
The UK announced last week that they will extend their ban on new puberty blocker prescriptions for minors who are gender confused. These drugs stop natural puberty from occurring, and trans activists say they are fully reversible and are simply a “pause button” to give children more time to decide how they want to identify (this is not true—delaying the natural process of puberty certainly has lasting consequences). But 98% of children who take them will go on to take cross-sex hormones, permanently sterilizing themselves. Puberty blockers aren’t a pause button—they’re a green light!
This “indefinite ban” on such medications for new patients (children who have already started on them may continue), comes after a study called the Cass Review found “the medical evidence around transition-related care for minors is ‘remarkably weak.’” Experts shared,
Children’s healthcare must always be evidence-led. . . . The independent expert Commission on Human Medicines found that the current prescribing and care pathway for gender dysphoria and incongruence presents an unacceptable safety risk for children and young people.
And,
Puberty blockers are powerful drugs with unproven benefits and significant risks, and that is why I recommended that they should only be prescribed following a multi-disciplinary assessment and within a research protocol.
While this certainly doesn’t stop the gender madness sweeping the UK, it’s a step in the right direction to protect children, and we’re thankful for that.
Similarly, the Canadian province of Alberta “has passed a trio of bills that strengthen parental rights, promote fairness in sports, and prevent minors from undergoing irreversible gender transition procedures they may later regret.”
Parental rights are under massive attack in the West, and it’s good to see at least one bill that affirms parents’ right to know what is going on with their children at school. One of the new bills “requires parental consent for children aged 15 and under to change their name, gender, and pronouns at school. Sixteen and 17-year-olds will not need parental consent, but their parents will be notified of any changes.” In addition to that, parents will have to opt their child in for “sexual orientation and gender identity curriculum,” rather than it being the default.
Hopefully, these sorts of bills will continue to be put forward and signed into law. Children—young, naive, and impressionable—are under massive attack from gender ideology and desperately need protection. Thankfully, the law is supplying some of that protection, but it’s parents who must be on the front lines—parents who will love and nurture their children, discipling them in God’s Word and helping them have an identity grounded in God’s created order and what Jesus has done for them.
If you aren’t having conversations about identity and God’s good design of male and female with your kids, you should be! Point them back to Genesis and how God’s “very good” design was male and female, two distinct genders in humans.
