Catholic leaders have applauded a new Oklahoma law protecting gender-confused children from dangerous hormone treatments and gender reassignment surgery.
On Monday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a law banning gender reassignment surgery and puberty blockers for minors younger than 18 years old, earning him praise from Christian leaders around the country.
“Having worked closely with House and Senate authors, we commend Gov. Stitt for swiftly signing S.B. 613 into law and adding Oklahoma to the list of states protecting children from these dangerous and irreversible procedures,” Brett Farley, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, told Catholic News Agency (CNA).
Euphemistically referred to as “gender affirming care” by progressive news outlets such as CNN and the Associated Press (AP), the banned procedures attempt to address the psychological malady of gender dysphoria with physical and chemical remedies.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to what’s happening across our nation, and as governor I am proud to stand up for what’s right and ban life-altering transition surgeries on children in the state of Oklahoma,” Governor Stitt said in a statement.
“We must protect our most vulnerable – our children,” Stitt said in his 2023 State of the State address last February. “After all minors can’t vote, can’t purchase alcohol, can’t purchase cigarettes… We shouldn’t allow a minor to get a permanent gender altering surgery in Oklahoma.”
In a recent pastoral letter, Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley expressed his closeness to young people experiencing gender dysphoria while insisting that puberty blockers and surgery are not the answer.
In his letter, Archbishop Coakley lamented that “many leaders in the United States are stridently promoting what has been dubbed ‘gender affirming therapy,’ which seeks to bring the body into alignment with one’s felt gender rather than working to align one’s felt gender with biological reality.”
“It is our responsibility to help children, family and friends understand that our Catholic faith and scientific research confirm this is not a helpful option. About a dozen studies show that for the vast majority of children, gender dysphoria resolves itself in adolescence,” he declared.
The archbishop went on to note that the most reliable long-term study “shows that those who surgically transitioned had vastly higher rates of suicide and suicide attempts than their peers.”
Moreover, “more than 95 percent of children who use puberty blockers eventually transition to opposite sex hormones,” he wrote, yet “puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones are experimental, with long-term effects still unknown.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.