A Dallas, Texas-based transgender clinic for children has been shut down after tense protests against its hospital board members, who were accused of committing child abuse.
The GENder Education and Care Interdisciplinary Support or GENECIS has been dissolved following Save Texas Kids' multiple protests against the Dallas Children's Health hospital's GENECIS program, which prescribes puberty blockers to children struggling with their gender identity.
"The Board Members of Dallas Children's refuse to promise they will limit 'gender dysphoria' patients under 18 to therapy only! That is our only ask," Save Texas Kids posted on Facebook earlier this month. "Children and young teens look for belonging and identity throughout their youth. This is normal. What is NOT normal, is allowing children to undergo irreversible 'puberty blocking therapy,' which is akin to chemical castration."
Hospital officials at Dallas Children's Health claimed that their GENECIS program was vital for kids who experienced gender dysphoria. The Texas Tribune reported that as per hospital officials, the program was the first of its kind in the Southwest and helped decrease "significant suffering and extraordinarily high suicide" rates among transgender kids.
Save Texas Children countered, however, that treatment on children who do experience gender dysphoria should be limited to counseling until the age of 18 and that doctors must not prescribe puberty blockers or other irreversible medical operations to minors, as kids are not yet able to make better-informed decisions that would affect their lives forever.
According to CBN News, there was no formal announcement regarding the Texas transgender clinic program's shutdown just yet, but hospital officials said in a statement that any new patients will be attended to in "appropriate specialty departments " and offered mental health and counseling services. The statement added, "We accept new patients for diagnosis, including evaluation of gender dysphoria, but will not initiate patients on hormone or puberty suppression therapy for only this diagnosis."
Texans and activists have become highly critical of the transgender clinic for kids following a wave of anti-transgender political sentiment in the Lone Star State. This year, Texas lawmakers passed new measure that prohibited transgender student athletes from participating on the school sports teams that match their gender identity.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to look into gender confirmation surgeries for transgender children and decide whether it is considered child abuse.
Meanwhile, Dallas hospitals are now erasing references to GENECIS on their websites. Children's Health and the UT Southwestern Medical Center, two leading hospitals in Dallas, have removed all references to GENECIS on their websites, as per the Dallas Morning News. The shut down of the program does not bode well for transgender youth in Texas, which reportedly has the largest populations of young people who identify as transgender in the U.S.
LGBTQ rights organization Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez lamented the recent developments, saying that it was "heartbreaking" to see providers that are trying to "save lives and provide established standards of care supported by all major medical associations are experiencing harassment."
