The British government is seeking to ban sex-change surgeries for children across the UK, according to reports.
The government, headed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is concerned about the rising number of minors being advised to undergo gender “transition” surgery after being diagnosed as transgender.
Liz Truss, the UK Minister for Women and Equalities, confirmed that the government will be taking steps to ban children from undergoing such surgeries before the age of 18, according to The Telegraph.
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The United Kingdom has seen a disturbing rise in children diagnosed with gender dysphoria in recent years.
Lifesitenews.com reports: At the moment, children under age 18 are permitted to begin “transitioning” as long as they have parental permission, but Truss has now stated that the Tory government plans to ban “genital reconstructive surgery” in order to “protect them from making those irreversible decisions” — at least until they are older. Trans groups, unsurprisingly, have pushed back, claiming that preventing children from making a decision that will dictate the course of the rest of their lives before they are legally allowed to drink, smoke, or vote is introducing “a new form of inequality into British medical practice.”
A representative of the trans group Mermaids, an organization that claims to support transgender children, stated that this inequality was transparent due to the fact that such a ban would be “effectively treating transgender teenagers as less capable than their cisgender peers.” This criticism rather misses the point, as presumably this ban would prevent anyone under 18, regardless of how they choose to identify, from undergoing a sex-change surgery.
Fortunately, the government appears to reject that view, with Truss stating that the move was aimed at “making sure that the under 18s are protected from decisions they could make, that are irreversible in the future … I believe strongly that adults should have the freedom to lead their lives as they see fit, but I think it’s very important that while people are still developing their decision-making capabilities that we protect them from making irreversible decisions.”
The details of the government’s plans have not yet been revealed (and won’t be until summer), and Truss only indicated that this is the path currently being planned while giving evidence to the Women and Equalities Select Committee earlier this month regarding reforms to the Gender Recognition Act. In addition to the proposed ban, Truss also stated that the government will be moving to protect “single-sex spaces,” which seems to indicate willingness to ensure that simply identifying as female will not be enough to access female-only facilities.
According to The Telegraph, Truss stated that the government would be working to protect transgender rights “whilst maintaining the proper checks and balances in the system.”
