BOSTON (AP) — Doctors and other staff members at Boston Children’s Hospital are being threatened with violence over its surgical program for transgender youth, administrators said, and other U.S. children’s hospitals are also being harassed online.
Boston Children’s is home to the first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program in the United States. It became the focus of far-right social media accounts, media outlets and bloggers last week after they found informative YouTube videos posted by the hospital weeks ago about surgical offerings for transgender patients.
The hospital quickly removed the videos. He said in a statement Tuesday that he is working with law enforcement to protect his staff and patients and to “hold violators accountable,” adding that he rejects the “false narrative” being spread online.
Some of the same social media accounts are now turning their attention, and that of their millions of followers, to similar gender-care programs at children’s hospitals in Pittsburgh and Phoenix. Those hospitals did not immediately respond to emails and phone messages seeking comment.
transition treatment is under attack in many states, with some labeling it form of child abuse either excluding Medicaid coverage. Critics argue that safety must be well established before subjecting young people to potentially irreversible treatments.
But many medical groups support allowing various types of medical treatment for transgender youth, citing evidence that it can improve their well-being, though rigorous long-term research on the benefits and risks is lacking.
Republican candidates have also been disparage transgender people in midterm election campaigns in a strategy designed to energize the conservative base and sway undecided voters, political observers say.
CP Hoffman, senior policy adviser at the National Center for Transgender Equality, said this is the first time they’ve heard of intense, targeted online attacks on children’s hospitals, though other organizations that provide services to trans people have faced significant harassment.
“It really makes one care about the safety of trans youth and their families and the people who provide services to them,” they said.
The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition also condemned the attacks as unsubstantiated claims that continue an attack on trans youth and trans health care that is sweeping the US.
“Attacking children and those who care for them for seeking adequate health care is an indefensible position and, in essence, a failed attempt to erase transgender people from public life,” the coalition said in a statement.
Critics cited the above videos and language snippets on the hospital’s website to claim that Boston Children’s Hospital was improperly performing gender-affirming surgeries, such as hysterectomies, on minors and “toddler” children. The response was swift and unrelenting, with a barrage of users demanding the closure of the hospital and calling the surgeries “mutilation”, “barbarism” and “child abuse”, while accusing their doctors of committing malpractice or illegal activities.
The hospital said it has received “a high volume” of hostile online messages, phone calls and harassing emails, including threats of violence.
“We are deeply concerned about these attacks on our doctors and staff fueled by misinformation and a lack of understanding and respect for our transgender community,” the hospital said in its statement.
The hospital updated the language on its websites to emphasize that to qualify for most gender-affirming surgical procedures, patients must be at least 18 years old and meet certain criteria, including undergoing medical and mental health evaluations. intensive and send letters of support.
Some of the online critics pointed to information that once appeared on the hospital’s website saying that to qualify for vaginoplasty at Boston Children’s, one must be at least 17 years old and meet certain criteria, as well as the language for chest reconstruction and breast augmentation that remains on the website that says patients must be at least 15 years old and meet certain criteria.
Vaginoplasty is the creation of a vagina from existing genital tissue. A gender-affirming hysterectomy is the removal of the uterus and fallopian tubes, which may precede a phalloplasty, the surgical creation of a penis.
The hospital said it does not perform genital surgeries as part of gender-affirming care on a patient under the age of 18. He said that for surgical consultation, a patient must be 17 years old and between 18 and 35 years old at the time of surgery.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, a global group that sets standards for health care for trans youth and adults, recently lowered its recommended minimum age to start gender transition treatment, including sex hormones and surgeries.
The new standards support starting hormones at age 14, two years earlier than before, and some surgeries at age 15 or 17, about a year earlier than previous guidance. The group acknowledged the potential risks, but said it is unethical and harmful to withhold early treatment.
The Endocrine Society generally recommends starting those treatments a year or two later, but is also updating its guidance. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association are among other groups that support medical treatment for transgender youth but offer no age-specific guidance.
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