Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 646 views

    Tennessee Attorney Generals Letter

    Uploaded by

    WTVC
    The attorneys general of 13 states wrote to express concern over medical organizations' requests for the DOJ to investigate and prosecute those who question treatments for gender dysphoria in children. While violence should be prosecuted, the organizations appear interested in suppressing ideas they disagree with. Growing international concerns over irreversible gender transition treatments for minors warrant open debate, not censorship.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content

    Tennessee Attorney Generals Letter

    Uploaded by

    WTVC
    646 views5 pages
    The attorneys general of 13 states wrote to express concern over medical organizations' requests for the DOJ to investigate and prosecute those who question treatments for gender dysphoria in children. While violence should be prosecuted, the organizations appear interested in suppressing ideas they disagree with. Growing international concerns over irreversible gender transition treatments for minors warrant open debate, not censorship.

    Original Description:

    .

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    The attorneys general of 13 states wrote to express concern over medical organizations' requests for the DOJ to investigate and prosecute those who question treatments for gender dysphoria in children. While violence should be prosecuted, the organizations appear interested in suppressing ideas they disagree with. Growing international concerns over irreversible gender transition treatments for minors warrant open debate, not censorship.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    646 views5 pages

    Tennessee Attorney Generals Letter

    Uploaded by

    WTVC
    The attorneys general of 13 states wrote to express concern over medical organizations' requests for the DOJ to investigate and prosecute those who question treatments for gender dysphoria in children. While violence should be prosecuted, the organizations appear interested in suppressing ideas they disagree with. Growing international concerns over irreversible gender transition treatments for minors warrant open debate, not censorship.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 5

    JONATHAN SKRMETTI

    ATTORNEY GENERAL AND REPORTER

    P.O. BOX 20207, NASHVILLE, TN 37202


    TELEPHONE: (615) 741-3491
    FACSIMILE: (615) 741-2009

    October 12, 2022

    The Honorable Merrick Garland


    Attorney General
    U.S. Department of Justice
    950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
    Washington, D.C. 20530

    Dear Attorney General Garland,


    We, the undersigned State Attorneys General, write to express our deep concern with the recent letter
    you received from the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and the
    Children’s Hospital Association asking you to investigate and prosecute people who question the
    medical establishment’s current treatment of children struggling with gender dysphoria. You cannot
    and should not undertake such investigations or prosecutions.
    We emphatically agree that anyone engaged in violent crime or threats of violence should be
    investigated and prosecuted by the appropriate authorities. But the medical organizations are asking
    you for much more than that. They are asking you to direct the criminal enforcement power of the
    federal government not only at those committing or threatening violence but also at those whose
    speech may “provoke” such threats.
    This broad request, and related comments by leaders in the medical organizations, indicate that they
    are interested not just in preventing violence but also in suppressing ideas with which they disagree.
    For example, in the press release accompanying the letter, the president of the Children’s Hospital
    Association targets “misleading and inflammatory comments that result in threats.” No doubt the
    medical associations object to the characterization of double mastectomies for minors as “mutilation”
    or “cutting healthy breasts off teen girls,” or of hormonal treatments as “chemical castration.” These
    descriptors may inflame and provoke. They are also entirely protected by the First Amendment. See,
    e.g., Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1, 4-5 (1949) (“There is no room under our Constitution for a more
    restrictive view. For the alternative would lead to standardization of ideas either by legislatures, courts,
    or dominant political or community groups.”).

    1
    Growing concerns about the current treatment of pediatric gender dysphoria make a free and open
    dialogue urgently necessary. For example, the Florida Medicaid Unit, after reviewing the available
    medical literature on the use of puberty suppression, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures,
    determined that there was “insufficient evidence” that such treatments are a “safe and effective
    treatment for gender dysphoria.”1 While the American medical organizations endorse a monolithic
    consensus they tout as impermeable to doubt, other countries have moved to restrict the medical
    treatment of pediatric gender dysphoria. Determining that the risks outweigh the benefits, Sweden’s
    National Board of Health and Welfare recommends2 tight restrictions on hormonal interventions for
    minors. The board previously highlighted a 1500% increase3 in gender dysphoria diagnoses among
    teenage girls over a ten year span. Finland’s leading authority, the Council for Choices in Health Care,
    also recommends4 strict limitations on the use of hormonal intervention for juveniles. The council
    further recommends against any surgical treatment for minors with gender dysphoria.
    Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, a blue ribbon investigation5 led to the closure of the country’s
    only dedicated gender identity clinic and raised serious concerns about the use of puberty blockers.
    And the National Academy of Medicine in France advises6 caution in pediatric gender transition and
    expresses concern over the existence of epidemic-like case clusters of adolescent gender dysphoria.
    One might expect a bit more intellectual humility from U.S. medical organizations when they address
    the life-altering, irreversible procedures they are championing as the cure du jour for pediatric gender
    dysphoria. Last century, leaders of the American Medical Association embraced eugenics as a cure for
    various social ills. Mid-century, the frontal lobotomy came into vogue as a treatment for psychiatric
    ailments.
    Despite these past cautionary tales and recent radical changes in pediatric practices, the medical
    establishment asks you to forcibly eliminate criticism of the treatment regime for gender dysphoric

    1
    Generally Accepted Professional Medical Standards Determination on the Treatment of Gender Dysphoria, Florida
    Medicaid, p3, June 2, 2022, http://www.ahca.myflorida.com/Medicaid/GAPMS/index.shtml.
    2
    Updated recommendations for hormone therapy in gender dysphoria in young people, Sweden National Board of
    Health and Welfare, Press Release, Feb. 22, 2022, https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/om-
    socialstyrelsen/pressrum/press/uppdaterade-rekommendationer-for-hormonbehandling-vid-konsdysfori-hos-unga/.
    3
    Multiple psychiatric diagnoses common in people with gender dysphoria, Sweden National Board of health and
    Welfare, Press Release, Feb. 2, 2022, https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/om-socialstyrelsen/pressrum/press/vanligt-
    med-flera-psykiatriska-diagnoser-hos-personer-med-konsdysfori/.
    4
    Medical treatment methods for dysphoria associated with variations in gender identity in minors –
    recommendation, Council for Choices in Health Care in Finland, June 16, 2020,
    https://palveluvalikoima.fi/documents/1237350/22895008/Summary_minors_en+(1).pdf/fa2054c5-8c35-8492-59d6-
    b3de1c00de49/Summary_minors_en+(1).pdf?t=1631773838474.
    5
    Implementing advice from the Cass Review, National Health Service of England, (Oct. 10, 2022)
    https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/gender-dysphoria-clinical-
    programme/implementing-advice-from-the-cass-review/.
    6
    Medicine and gender transidentity in children and adolescents, French National Academy of Medicine, Press
    Release, Feb. 25, 2022, https://www.academie-medecine.fr/la-medecine-face-a-la-transidentite-de-genre-chez-les-
    enfants-et-les-adolescents/?lang=en.
    2
    minors. We would welcome clarification from the organizations as to the scope of their request, but
    as of now it appears they would rather silence critics than debate them.
    We respectfully demand that you stand down and allow the national conversation to continue. Now
    is a time for more speech, not less. Each side must have the opportunity to marshal evidence, make
    its case, and attempt to persuade the American people of the rightness of its position. This is the
    process most likely to attain the truth and promote effective policymaking. Silencing critics of current
    gender dysphoria treatment practices for minors will not make children any safer or healthier. Instead,
    it will lead to bad decision-making and erode public confidence in both the federal government and
    the medical community.
    We are particularly troubled by the medical organizations’ parallel calls to you and leading social media
    platforms to take action against speech they find unwelcome or inconvenient regarding the treatment
    of pediatric gender dysphoria. A concerted effort by government and industry to suppress speech
    violates America’s most fundamental principles. As you are aware, any conspiracy between federal
    officials and private actors to deprive Americans of a constitutional right would give rise to civil and
    criminal liability for all involved. 18 U.S.C. § 241; 42 U.S.C. § 1983; Dennis v. Sparks, 449 U.S. 24 (1980).
    Americans frequently disagree about important issues. That is normal and healthy. But the answer to
    disagreement is never the criminalization of speech. “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional
    constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in matters of
    politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act
    their faith therein.” West Virginia Bd. of Ed. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642 (1943).
    Nothing matters more than protecting our children. We need to make sure we are doing that right.
    The only way to obtain that certainty is through rigorous interrogation of current practices. Criticism
    must be welcomed, not silenced. Thank you for your consideration.

    Sincerely,

    Jonathan Skrmetti
    Tennessee Attorney General

    3
    Leslie C. Rutledge
    Arkansas Attorney General Austin Knudsen
    Montana Attorney General

    Todd Rokita
    Indiana Attorney General Douglas J. Peterson
    Nebraska Attorney General

    Derek Schmidt
    Kansas Attorney General

    John M. O’Connor
    Oklahoma Attorney General
    Daniel Cameron
    Kentucky Attorney General

    Alan Wilson
    South Carolina Attorney General

    Jeff Landry
    Louisiana Attorney General
    Ken Paxton
    Texas Attorney General

    Lynn Fitch
    Mississippi Attorney General
    Patrick Morrisey
    West Virginia Attorney General

    4
    c.c.

    Moira Szilagyi, M.D. PhD, FAAP


    President
    American Academy of Pediatrics
    345 Park Boulevard
    Itaska, IL 60143

    Jack Resneck Jr., M.D.


    American Medical Association
    AMA Plaza
    330 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 39300
    Chicago, IL 60611

    Mark Wietecha
    Chief Executive Officer
    Children’s Hospital Association
    600 13th Street, NW. Ste. 500
    Washington, D.C. 20005

    You might also like