Nursing School Teaches Students to Ask Children as Young as 3 About Their Gender

Police face pro-transgender protesters outside of Boston Children's Hospital in Boston on Sept. 18, 2022. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

The University of Arizona (UA) nursing school promotes the idea that toddlers can be transgender, according to slides confirmed to be part of a training program for student nurses.

Libs of TikTok, an account on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted a photo of UA nursing school training slides that coach future nurses on how to question children as young as 3 about their gender.

One slide is labeled “What to ask – Ages 3 to 13.” It suggests using the following wording with children in that age group during well-child checks:

“Some kids feel like a girl on the inside, some kids feel like a boy on the inside, and some kids feel like neither, both, or someone else. What about you? How do you feel on the inside? There’s no right or wrong answer.”

In a response two days later, the university confirmed that the slides were from a College of Nursing doctoral student seminar. The transgender discussion was part of a 40-minute session on “complex issues nurse practitioners face,” according to UA.

“The College of Nursing does not recommend or advocate for young children to be asked gender-related questions in wellness checks. The college does not have a policy or position on this issue and does not integrate this type of training or education into its curriculum,” the university stated.

UA teaches practitioners to work with “parents and guardians and with their permission” when treating pediatric patients, UA stated.

Testosterone medication for gender transitioning is displayed by a former user of the medication in Northern California on Aug. 26, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

The Sept. 6 post by Libs of TikTok about the slides has amassed more than 2.2 million views.

On Aug. 30, Libs of TikTok posted a similar training slide and video—this time said to be leaked from an employee at Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest health care providers on the West Coast.

Kaiser Permanente released a statement to Fox News Digital saying that the training didn’t endorse the use of medical interventions on 3- or 4-year-olds. The hospital system didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

The Kaiser Permanente training, led by three doctors and a physician’s assistant, aims to “explain the importance of gender-affirming care to KP (Kaiser Permanente) employees, staff, and patients.”

It also seeks to teach “appropriate terms that allow for understanding and delivering of gender-affirming care” and help them “recognize the experiences transgender, gender diverse, and intersex patients face” and determine how that might affect their interactions and the care they provide.

The training was meant to help providers “deliver an exceptional care experience to the transgender, gender diverse, and intersex community.”

A video showing young children identifying as the opposite sex includes a young boy who has identified as a girl since he was 4. Another segment of the video included a woman identifying as a man, saying she knew she was transgender at the age of 3.

Kaiser Permanente health care workers protest in Anaheim, Calif., on March 24, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

In May, The Epoch Times reported on gender clinics affiliated with three North Carolina medical schools that were seeing patients as young as 2 for gender dysphoria.

The medical schools at Duke University, the University of North Carolina, and East Carolina University referenced providing “treatment” for toddlers and grade-school-age children with gender dysphoria on organization websites, in documents, and in news articles.

Detransitioner Warnings

People who attempted to transition to the opposite sex but later reversed course—often self-described as detransitioners—now speak out against the medical establishment’s endorsement of sex-change procedures for minors.

One former Kaiser Permanente patient, Chloe Cole, had both breasts removed when she was a teenager. She later tried to reverse changes to her body from hormones administered to help her look and sound more like a boy. Some of the effects are irreversible and have caused ongoing medical problems.

She is suing the physicians who she says pushed her to “transition” to male.

According to the lawsuit, Ms. Cole suffered from “gender dysphoria” at the age of 9. The lawsuit alleges that she underwent harmful procedures between the ages of 13 and 17 when doctors administered puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and a double mastectomy.

Testosterone medication used in "gender-transitioning" is displayed on Aug. 26, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

The lawsuit alleges that Kaiser Permanente “mutilated” Ms. Cole in response to her struggle with mental health issues as a minor.

Although advocates for transgenderism say it’s rare for children to receive so-called gender-affirming surgery, a recent study published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) documents that more than 3,678 youths 12 to 18 had such a surgery between 2016 and 2020.

The study reviewed a database with information about surgeries at “2,800 hospital-owned facilities from up to 35 states.” Within that network, researchers identified 48,019 patients who underwent “gender-affirming” surgeries in the four-year period.

Of minors identified in the study, 3,200 had breast or chest surgery, and more than 400 had genital surgery, researchers wrote.

The study didn’t provide the age of the youngest patient who received genital surgery. The most common genital surgeries were hysterectomy, surgical removal of the testes, and vaginoplasty, which attempts to build a vagina in a male patient seeking to live as a female.

Sex-change surgeries sometimes involve removing male or female reproductive organs and replacing them with an engineered version of the opposite sex’s organ. Surgeons remove skin and tissues from other parts of the body to build the facsimile.

Protesters opposing medical transgender procedures for youths, including Chloe Cole (3rd L), gather outside the American Academy of Pediatrics convention in Anaheim, Calif., on Oct. 7, 2022. Courtesy of Scott Newgent, TreVoices.Org

The controversy over procedures to change children’s gender prompted Republican-led legislatures to pass laws banning transgender surgeries and cross-sex hormones for children in red states such as Texas and Florida.

Florida’s law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in the spring, bans puberty blockers or hormone therapy for transgender youth and places conditions on adults’ access to the same.

The Texas law signed this spring by Gov. Greg Abbott prohibits “treatment” for childhood gender dysphoria, including mastectomies, surgeries that sterilize children—including procedures to remove parts of their reproductive systems—and prescribing drugs that induce temporary or permanent infertility, such as cross-sex hormones.

Proponents of “gender-affirming care” say it saves lives and improves mental health.

Opponents say the “treatment” irrevocably harms children and that gender dysphoria usually disappears eventually without medical intervention.