The offices of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Senator Josh Hawley are investigating…
Republican officials are investigating St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s pediatric transgender clinic after Jamie Reed, a former caseworker, accused the clinic of “morally and medically appalling” care.
Now, a parents’ rights nonprofit has uncovered emails from an elementary school teacher to a staff member at the clinic from the fall of 2021.
The teacher contacted the clinic for help dealing with a group of fifth grade girls who all said they were transgender. The 10 and 11-year-olds announced their new gender identities after one of their friends first said they were trans.
The teacher was careful to treat the children with respect but expressed concerns that they were being socially influenced by their friend.
The clinic employee replied that their concerns of a social contagion spreading among the young girls were “invalid,” then added that when an individual realizes their gender identity doesn’t match their biological sex, others “realize they are similar.”
“Depending on who you ask, this is common, but also in varied ways,” the staff member continued. “There are schools of thought that have ‘documented’ this as an issue of significance, in that a student coming out as transgender, becomes a ‘contagion.’ This language isn’t affirming and the few studies on phenomenon are, in my personal and professional opinion, invalid.”
WPDE ABC 15 reports:
The Parkway Schools official who reached out to SLCH’s transgender center responded that the information was “very helpful” and asked for any additional resources that might help them navigate the situation.
Following up, the transgender center at SLCH said its “Adolescent Medicine specialist,” Dr. Sarah Garwood, wanted to reiterate the best thing that the school officials could do in this situation was “affirm, validate and allow for the exploration.”
A June 2022 report from The New York Times showed a sharp increase in the number of youths who identify as transgender since 2017, signifying to the paper a “stark generational shift and emerging societal embrace of a diversity of gender identities.”
But the Times added that the increase raises questions about peer pressure and social influence among teens and young adults:
The study found people 13 to 25 accounted for a disproportionately larger share of the transgender population. While younger teenagers were just 7.6 percent of the total U.S. population, they made up roughly 18 percent of transgender people. Likewise, 18- to 24-year-olds made up 11 percent of the total population but 24 percent of the transgender population.
Older adults had a disproportionately small share: Though 62 percent of the total population, only 47 percent of transgender people were 25 to 64. And while 20 percent of Americans are over 65, that age group makes up only 10 percent of the total number of transgender people nationwide.
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The data also show the distribution of trans people by state. New York has the largest estimated population of transgender teenagers, at 3 percent, whereas Wyoming has the lowest, at 0.6 percent. Transgender adults showed a narrower range, with 0.9 percent of adults identifying as transgender in North Carolina and 0.2 percent in Missouri.
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