The website encourages children to pause puberty if they’re unsure about their gender identity.
QUICK FACTS:
- A website geared towards transgender-identifying teens tells kids as young as 13 how to get cross-sex hormones without parental consent.
- TransgenderMap.com is a resource for California’s Salinas Union High School District (SUHSD) website.
- The site is listed under LGBTQ Library Resources, which also included a link to the TransTeenProject.org website
- A keyword search for “hormones” brings students to a link including “Obtaining Hormones and Anti-Androgens as a Minor: Overview” on the Transgender Map site.
- One specific set of instructions from the Transgender Map site tells teens “how to get hormones as a transgender minor.”
- “Even if you do not think you can start hormones yet, you should think about taking a hormone blocker to make your puberty stop,” the website states. “This is one of the most important things you can do at your age. Try to find a way if you can.”
CONSERVATIVES PARENTS’ CONCERNs ABOUT THE HORMONE TREATMENT:
- “This is incredibly reckless,” said Kelly Schenkoske, the concerned parent who researched TransgenderMap.com. “The material is unbelievably shocking, and the public deserves to know what’s going on.”
- “‘One of the most important things you can do at your age?’ I mean, you’ve got to be kidding me. What they’re doing to these kids is placing them in tremendous risk and potential danger. The way things are worded matters. The way this is communicated and presented is not balanced. It seems marketed,” Schenkoske went on to say.
BACKGROUND:
- Proponents of gender-affirming care have claimed that not providing care to affirm the self-chosen gender identities of children can lead to youth suicides.
- However, Recently, the mental health of transgender-identifying children has been brought into question due to a recent report by the Heritage Foundation revealing that youth suicide rates have risen higher in states that allowed minors easier access to puberty blockers.
