This post originally appeared at https://wifamilycouncil.org/radio/wisconsin-shouldnt-become-california/

2023 | Week of June 19 | Radio Transcript #1521

California is close to enacting a law that could result in parents involved in custody battles being liable for child abuse if they don’t “affirm” their kids’ gender.[1] Minnesota’s governor has recently signed the “Trans Refuge” bill that prohibits enforcing out-of-state subpoenas, arrest warrants, and extradition requests for people from other states who come to Minnesota for care that is legal there.[2]

News flash: Wisconsin is not California or Minnesota—and we should stop trying to be either one of those. But Dane County is determined to follow these very bad examples.

In the early hours of Friday, June 16, in a meeting lasting over four hours, the Dane County Board of Supervisors approved a first-in-the-nation resolution making the county a sanctuary for individuals identifying as transgender and non-binary. More than fifty people commented on the proposed resolution, most of them opposing it.  Nevertheless, the resolution passed twenty-five to one, with three supervisors abstaining.

This resolution is bad on every level. Most concerning, however, is that the resolution specifically references children and encourages school boards and other government entities in Dane County to pass similar resolutions.

Children simply are not developed enough to understand the magnitude of trying to do the impossible—trying to change their sex—along with the so-called “treatments” involved. Furthermore, before these procedures, children are often not informed of the lifelong ramifications of transition surgeries and drugs. These procedures leave children with permanent scars—both physical and emotional—all before they are old enough to vote or process whether they want to have children of their own.

Although supporters of the resolution claim they are supporting the mental health of children, what they are really supporting is experimentally halting a child’s natural progression through puberty, sterilizing him or her with cross-sex hormones and removing healthy reproductive body parts before the boy or girl finishes high school.

Furthermore, the resolution states that so-called gender affirming care is health care and a fundamental right. Both of those ideas are categorically wrong. The resolution goes so far as to say that if Wisconsin were to pass a law that restricts so-called “gender affirming care” such as surgery, puberty blockers, or hormones, “the Dane County Board of Supervisors urges the Sheriff to make enforcement their lowest priority.” This resolution encourages law enforcement to wink at any such law instead of doing their job of enforcing the law.

Last year, seventeen-year-old Chloe Cole shared with the New York Post, her story of transitioning as a child.^[3] When Cole was just twelve, she decided that she was transgender. At age thirteen she was put on puberty blockers and testosterone. After just two years, she had a double mastectomy. By the time she was sixteen, she regretted this decision.

Chloe shared that her decision to transition revolved largely around her view of her body. She explained, “I thought I wasn’t pretty enough to be a girl, so I’d be better off as a boy.” Rather than helping her through these negative feelings, doctors encouraged her to permanently mutilate her body.  When Chloe was thirteen what she needed was adults to come alongside her and truly help her through her body-image struggles, not to encourage her to permanently, irreparably alter her body.  The resolution passed by the Dane County Board will only lead to more children like Chloe being permanently mutilated.

In Wisconsin alone, according to a pro-LGBTQ+ organization, 6400 children identify as transgender. Rather than sending these children all down a one-way road to transition that ends in sterilization, mutilation, and regret, we should seek to protect these confused and depressed children.

This move by Dane County should be a wake-up call to concerned citizens and elected officials. We need to join the eighteen other states that have legislation to protect these vulnerable children; we don’t need a “sanctuary county” that condones such egregious medical practices.

Unfortunately, what starts in Dane County, too often doesn’t stay there. Already we’ve received news that Milwaukee County will be considering a similar resolution in July. Rather than following California’s, Minnesota’s. and now Dane County’s ill-conceived ideas, Wisconsin’s seventy-one other counties should pass resolutions that denounce what Dane County is doing and that assure citizens that they stand on the side of protecting the bodies and minds of children, ensuring they have the very best opportunity to grow up intact in every way.

This is Julaine Appling for Wisconsin Family Council, reminding you the prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

[1]https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-bill-punish-parents-affirm-childrens-gender-reckless-psychotherapist

[2]https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/talking-points-minnesota-is-now-safe-haven-for-transgender-community/ar-AA1cyMlx

[3]https://nypost.com/2022/06/18/detransitioned-teens-explain-why-they-regret-changing-genders/

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