Federal pressure on private parties to squelch challenges to Biden administration narratives, tacitly tolerated by the Supreme Court in a decision last month making it harder for social media users to sue public officials, goes beyond COVID-19, elections and Hunter Biden’s laptop.
It also includes how to treat children with so-called “gender confusion,” as revealed by legal discovery in a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s ban on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for those under 19 – what supporters call gender-affirming care, which also includes surgical removal of healthy breasts and genitals.
A YouGov poll last month found most Americans agree with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s position on the issue – banning “hormonal or surgical treatment for transgender minors” – while fewer than one-third back President Biden’s opposition.
Unlike the murky role played by then-National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci in virus researchers suddenly changing their minds about SARS-CoV-2’s origin, Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine’s demands heavily influenced a transgender health group’s last-minute decision to lower its standards for minors.
Also influential was the American Academy of Pediatrics’ threat to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health to oppose the eighth version of WPATH’s Standards of Care, which are widely relied upon globally by gender clinics, healthcare providers and insurers, if the final version of SOC 8 kept the age minimums in the draft.
The two organizations closely collaborate, according to emails between their leadership obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation through a public records request to West Virginia University, which employs a WPATH U.S. affiliate board member and AAP Committee on State Government Affairs member.
While scientists on the Feb. 1, 2020 conference call with Fauci had a potential personal interest in discrediting the COVID lab-leak theory – Fauci’s discretion over NIAID research grants – communications between staff for Levine and WPATH don’t suggest the latter feared financial retribution from Levine.
Hellbound and Down 