Several Texas public medical schools teach child gender modification and transgenderism at taxpayer expense, according to a Texas lawmaker who has called for an investigation.
“Additional investigation into these medical schools should be done so that the people of Texas can have an even clearer idea of what their tax dollars are supporting,” he said.
When contacted, Slaton told The Epoch Times that universities were quiet on the subject, but he kept hearing there were classes on transgender care, and medical students were observing procedures. In a past legislative session, the mainstream media, Democrats, and even some Republicans “played dumb” and questioned if these practices were happening, he said.
So he began filing open records requests for syllabi from the different state medical schools over the past year to answer that question. What Slaton found was concerning.
Slaton called for an end to teaching “bogus and harmful” transgender practices involving children, saying liberals like to accuse people of “fear mongering” when addressing the topic.
“Not only are young children being subjected to barbaric gender-modification practices like surgeries and puberty-blocking drugs on a daily basis, but these practices are being taught to the next generation of doctors in some of our public medical schools,” Slaton said in the release.
Slaton’s release noted that the University of North Texas’ Pharmacy 7205 class requires students to “learn advanced skills in the provision of pharmaceutical care to the LGBT persons.”
At the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, testosterone, estrogen, and drugs such as spironolactone and finasteride have been administered for gender-transition purposes within the context of an internal-medicine clerkship and endocrinology elective, according to documents.
A University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center course titled Adolescent and Young Adult Transgender Care requires students to have “an in-depth educational experience working with transgender youth and adults,” including offsite experiences and direct engagement with the GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support clinic, and their protocols and materials, according to information Slaton received.
UT Southwestern documents showed “students may have observed mastectomy or breast augmentation procedures related to gender transition” and that physicians prescribe or administer puberty suppression therapy or hormonal therapy and counseling, all concerning gender modification.
“No one in their right mind believes that surgically removing healthy body parts and ingesting an unnatural amount of hormones and drugs is the right answer to a mental condition,” he said in the release.
The GENECIS clinic in Dallas offers hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and mental health services to transgender children. It was dissolved in November 2021 after an outcry from conservative leaders, and could only treat existing patients. But the center opened again for business in May after the center’s director, Dr. Ximena Lopez, filed a lawsuit and won a temporary injunction, according to a Texas Tribune article.
The issue of gender modification was an important topic at the Texas GOP Convention in June. Republican delegates voted to make banning gender modification of children a top legislative priority in 2023. The practices targeted by lawmakers were to included puberty blockers, genital mutilation, and body alteration through surgery, and psychological and social transitioning.
Changing a child’s gender through surgery or medication is “irrevocable,” Slaton noted, adding that society has an obligation to protect children from people or activities that might harm them. So, shielding them from harm associated with gender modification should be no different.
Slaton said he hopes other Texas lawmakers will join him in passing legislation that will stop child gender modification by outlawing gender counseling, along with gender-altering medications and procedures for minors. He reasoned that if it becomes illegal to practice, then it wouldn’t be taught in university classes.
“The main idea behind it is to leave children alone,” he said.
