Planned Parenthood Weighs In On Transgender Debate
A national debate over transgender rights is raging on, and now Planned Parenthood is weighing in.
Some Planned Parenthood offices across the country are promoting prescriptions for hormone therapy and other services for transgender people.
Planned Parenthood’s services are aimed at “transgender people and people at various places on the spectrum of gender identity and expression,” according to a transgender services web page for Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes in New York.
When certain criteria are met, Medicare and Medicaid can also pay for hormone therapy and sex change surgeries in some states. Some insurance companies are paying for the treatments, as well.
Last year, Planned Parenthood came under fire for a series of undercover videos that allege an administrator was discussing the sale of body parts from aborted fetuses. Some members of Congress threatened to remove Planned Parenthood’s federal funding, and the group remains under investigation.
Planned Parenthood’s move is just the latest in a series of national controversies over transgender issues. An ongoing debate over transgender bathrooms was preceded by former Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner’s announcement in April 2015 that he now identifies himself as a woman, Caitlyn Jenner.
An estimated 700,000 adults or 0.3 percent of the U.S. population are believed to identify themselves as transgender, the New York Times reported. But that figure is only a best guess. The U.S. Census, for example, does not document gender identity.
Although an apparently small minority of the population is transgender, the issue has moved to the forefront across the country. Critics say the issues is being forced on the general public and in some schools.
Others say they are not against the transgender community. Rather, they are concerned about criminals who could use open restroom policies to exploit or assault women or children.
Anyone who questions the practice risks being labeled as an anti-LGBT extremist.
Planned Parenthood is working with Ithaca College’s Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services in New York to further promote transgender issues. The program, Out for Health, outlines how to contact various agencies to make changes to Social Security and birth certificate records, for example.
Ithaca College has a handout called “Supporting Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Children: Additional Resources for Professionals, Families and Caregivers.” Also included is a listing of books for children.
Other transgender promotions are geared toward students.
Sandy Rios, director of Government Affairs for the American Family Association (AFA), told Breitbart that schools are being coerced to promote transgender policies. Rios said schools are going along with it because they fear the loss of funding or other sanctions from the government.
“And I can only say that the Obama Justice Department and Education Department are now forcing schools around the country – maybe in a quiet way for some – forcing schools to adopt this policy of allowing children who think they’re boys or girls, whatever they think they are, to be able to use bathroom and bathing and changing facilities in public schools.” Rios told Brietbart.
AFA helped lead a boycott of Target’s open transgender restroom policy, according to Brietbart.
Still, supporters continue reaching out to their communities and schools.
Sam Killermann, an author and comedian, claims on his website that no one really understands gender. Killermann, who bills himself as an expert on gender, sexuality, and social justice, also offers advice to teenagers. He says he uses comedy to talk about “snap judgments, identity and oppression.”
“Gender is one of those things everyone thinks they understand, but don’t,” states the website page for his “Genderbread” program. The statement falls under the heading “Genderqueer.”
Jenner is also reaching out to students. She recently visited the Academy for Young Writers in Brooklyn, where she met with “low-income LGBT teenagers of color,” The New York Times reported. The school was chosen for its acceptance of LGBT teens.
Jenner promoted the visit as a way to visit with transgender “kids who are struggling with bullying and ostracism.”
“And now the state joins in the bullying and the harassment,” Jenner told The New York Times. “You will lose lives because of it in our community.”
The 66-year-old Jenner plans to pose semi-nude on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, a spot traditionally reserved for young supermodels. Jenner plans to wear nothing but a flag and her Olympic gold medal.
[Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images]
