[Síguenos ahora también en WhatsApp. Da clic aquí]

Statements by Republican candidate Donald Trump about alleged schools in the United States where children are forced to undergo training gender reassignment methods They were introduced into the election campaign, turning the remaining issue into a campaign factor.

“Can you imagine being a parent and telling your child, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much, have a great day at school,’ and he comes back with brutal surgery?” .

Based on this speech, which he has repeated at many campaign events this year, aroused great suspicion in conservative families to educational centers throughout the country.

Indeed, associations such as Moms for freedom they think the person lives “transsexual explosion” in state schools run by Democrats where “children are forced to become homosexual or transgender.”

This group of parents opened 300 offices in 48 states in four years and 130,000 participants.

Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, who has sought to point out Trump’s false statements on other issues such as immigration, has not spoken out as much about gender confirmation practices for minors, recognizing that it is a controversial issue that siphons votes.

However, in 2015, when she was California’s attorney general, she announced that she would order all federal agencies to authorize and support sexual transition treatment, Harris said in an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) questionnaire at the time.

In addition, his words did not go beyond good intentions towards the LGBTI community, so that “all people feel included and respected” without bothering about Trump’s words.

According to the study, in 2021, about 42,000 children under the age of 18 in the United States (0.05% of the total) were diagnosed with dysphoria – an identity disorder that causes emotional distress due to a discrepancy between gender identity and the sex assigned at birth . research by the information company Komodo.

However, numbers for dysphoria or gender-affirming therapy in the United States are difficult to measure due to a lack of transparency in many states, varying legislation, and the difficulty of tracking treatments that were not paid for through health insurance.

Trump’s throwing weapon in debate with Harris

In his fixation on turning the transgender issue into a campaign warhorse, Trump quickly expanded his scope beyond his usual insults against transgender minors to include another of his great “enemy”: immigration.

Thus, during the September election debate, he accused Harris of wanting to fund medical care for transgender migrants at the expense of all taxpayers if she ascends to the Oval Office.

“Now (Harris) also wants to perform transgender surgeries on illegal immigrants in prison (…) She is a radical left-wing liberal who can do this,” the tycoon said during a face-to-face meeting with the current US president. Vice President, which was watched live by more than 67 million people.

Harris simply said at the time that “it is important that transgender people who depend on government care get the treatment they need.”

The lack of decisiveness in the response to Trump has contributed to the issue becoming a concern among conservative voters, mainly those who believe it is illogical to allow minors to decide whether to have gender surgery but cannot vote (18 or drinking). alcohol (21 years old) is legal.

Relative growth of transsurgical procedures in the United States

However, Trump’s smears aside, data shows that in 2022 there were about 300,000 transgender people aged 13 to 17 in the US (1.76% of the total), according to a study by the Williams Institute (University of California). University of California at Los Angeles).

And as for the supposed boom in transsurgical procedures, statistics show that they tripled between 2016 (4,552 procedures) and 2019 (13,011) – according to a study by Columbia University and the University of Southern California (USC) – but only 7% of the procedures were performed on people over 12 up to 18 years old.

That is, 910 transactions per year, which quantified the largest number of transactions on minors throughout the United States, out of a total sample of 25 million people of this age.

Meanwhile, with the US election just two weeks away, Trump says he will end sex-selective grooming for minors, which he has equated to “child sexual abuse and mutilation,” and that he will repeal Title IX, a federal law . which guarantees students of both genders the same rights – for trans students.

EFE