#BTColumn – Gender identity and children

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

by Pastor Flloyd N Hall

“… Pubertal-aged children are incapable of understanding the nature and effects of puberty-suppressing drugs and thus cannot agree to the controversial treatments.” – Article by Brandon Showalter, The Christian Post, October 9, 2020, www.christianpost.com.

This is what the attorneys for Keira Bell are contending in a major trial in the United Kingdom, which started last Thursday.

Puberty-suppressing drugs or puberty blockers are drugs which suppress the release of estrogen in females and testosterone in males. The body’s production of these hormones is increased in greater quantities during puberty
in individuals.

Ms Bell, now 23, once identified as a transgender in her teens, but does not presently do so. She was treated with puberty blockers at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust in London – the only gender clinic in the UK.

At 14, she discovered the transgender lifestyle on the internet and started to believe that she had been born in the “wrong body.”

There is no end of social sites and literature available that inspire and encourage this kind of thinking – one that deviates so far from God’s ideal for the human family. The infinite Creator does not go to the trouble of designing someone in the wrong body!

We know that sin in the world sometimes corrupts what God has created.

We also know that the devil who is the father of lies, corrupts mankind’s thinking and reasoning!

But unfortunately, this is what teenager Bell believed – that she was born in the wrong body. And this is what led her to seek the services of the National Health Service (NHS). Apart from being treated at the clinic with puberty blockers, Bell also went on to take cross-sex hormones; and later, she “underwent a cosmetic double mastectomy.”

Of course, the lawyers for the clinic argue that “puberty suppressants have undergone extensive research [and]… are safe and reversible.”

However, Bell’s attorneys counter that “there is evidence that hormone blockers can have significant side effects, including loss of fertility and sexual function and decreased bone density.”

Regarding the question of fertility, Bell believes that gender drugs have likely “foreclosed her fertility” and is adamant that prescribing puberty blockers to children under 18 should be stopped!

“I made a brash decision as a teenager,” she said, “as a lot of teenagers do, trying to find confidence and happiness, except now the rest of my life will be negatively affected.”

This is the nature of youth and their development. We can all identify with that youthful period of our lives when we had idealistic dreams regarding careers and identity. However, as we grew older, we abandoned the majority of these dreams.

This is why the prescription of puberty blockers and other medical procedures are particularly dangerous and harmful to adolescents, who are not yet sure about what they hope to achieve in life.

But should not medical professionals be aware of this indecisive period in the life of young people – a period of experimenting with ideas and fads? Should not they know of cases where some youth even experiment with homosexuality during puberty; and then denounce it in late teen-years or early adulthood?

Let us hope that the judgment in this case comes down on the side of Ms Bell and her attorneys. For, as she said, regarding the medical treatment for gender transitioning, it is “a very temporary, superficial fix for a very complex identity issue.”