When the medical ethics textbooks of the future are written, they’ll look back on sex-rejecting procedures for minors the way we look back on lobotomies. I applaud the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for placing itself on the right side of history by opposing these dangerous, unscientific experiments.
Dr. Mehmet Oz (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator)
Four years ago, it looked like the woke-left was winning the culture war when the first openly transgender athlete won a Division I national title in any sport. On March 17, 2022, Penn’s Lia (born William) Thomas won the women’s 500-yard freestyle – by a lot. Now, the adults in the room are saying not so fast. On January 30, a blue-state jury punished a psychiatrist and a surgeon for rushing a 16-year-old into irreversible gender reassignment surgery. On February 3, an 11,000-member surgeon’s association said “no“ to gender reassignment surgeries until age nineteen.
Before celebrating these victories for normalcy, let’s understand how the Democrat Party could embrace a 1% issue (the trans population is not even 1% of Americans, and only a quarter of them opt for gender-reassignment surgery). The DNC’s trans position (“expanding access to gender-affirming care”) was arguably their worst bad idea that helped Donald Trump to the GOP’s biggest presidential win since 1988.
Don’t scoff, there was a reason the Trump campaign ran its anti-woke ad (“Kamala is with they/them. President Trump is with you.”) 55,000 times in the run-up to Election Day, mostly during high-profile televised events (e.g. NCAA and NFL football games). Because most Americans are “normal” folks, only 25% of all voters polled before the election opposed “a ban on trans procedures” (source: The Center Square). Because 64% of all voters were Christian, and Harris Walz lost two-thirds of their vote (source: CNN).
The Democrat Thinking Trap
The Democrat Party’s “social justice” positions have erred by conflating every minority’s grievance with the 60s civil-rights movement. This has trapped Democrats into blindly taking up the cause of every aggrieved minority, resulting all too often in division and unintended consequences.
What is it with division and Democrats? Because their reliance on identity politics has invited near-fatal division three times. In 1860, identity politics begat secession and civil war. In 1964, identity politics split the party in two. In 2024, identity politics cost the party its lock on working-class voters. The party is now a coalition of splinter groups, often with mutually exclusive goals. They cannot support Jewish rights and Zohran Mamdani…cannot support the choice of a transgender boy and the dream of a female athlete.
The issue of transgender rights is complicated by identity politics. America is tolerant of its outliers – always has been – but extreme Democrats could not stop at equal opportunity and protection under the law. They had to offer indulgence (let the boy onto the girls team), equity (over-portray transgenders on Netflix), and primacy (force their preferred pronouns on everyone); thereby defying common sense. What transgenders need are the rights to tolerance (let the boy wear eye liner at school), opportunity (let the girl try out for the boys team), and protection (don’t allow trans folks to be bullied).
No question, transgender madness peaked during the Biden years. To wit, at her Supreme Court confirmation hearings in March 2022, Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked by Sen Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) if she could provide a definition for the word “woman.” Jackson: “No, I can’t. Not in this context; I’m not a biologist.” Later, she kinda-sorta recovered by telling Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), “I know that I am a woman” (but only because the President promised to appoint a “black woman” to the high court).
The “Normies” Strike Back
When Dr. King said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” he was not talking about woke teachers grooming pubescent students, or keeping those kids’ parents out of the gender-reassignment information loop. Thus, by not being 100% open and honest, the transgender movement’s arc bent toward injustice – – which is why de-transitioning Fox Varian (now 22 years old) won $2 million in the first malpractice suit to go before a jury.
The jury determined that (then 16) Varian’s doctors departed from medical standards by performing an irreversible double mastectomy without properly evaluating her mental health history (depression, ADHD, and autism) or obtaining genuine informed consent (source: court records). One cannot underestimate the importance of a New York jury’s verdict for the de-transition movement, or against the pro-transition activists, especially with Trump now appointing 182 conservative judges (average appointments per presidential term).
These judicial “wins” informed the new position statement from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), which recommends surgeons delay gender reassignment surgeries until a patient is 19-years-old. After a jury – in New York, no less – ruled against a surgeon, the ASPS should exercise an abundance of caution in its recommendation to its members. Suffice it to note the society knows a doctor’s “social justice” beliefs mean nothing to the business providing malpractice insurance.
The new position of the ASPS, that there must be low risk-benefit certainty before a surgeon recommends gender-related surgery to a minor, means “woke” psychiatrists and surgeons now face three strong head winds: (1) newly emboldened de-transition plaintiffs attorneys, (2) wary malpractice insurance providers, and (3) a hostile HHS. This last headwind is the X factor because the HHS recently adopted a position strongly opposing gender-affirming surgeries and hormonal treatments for minors, characterizing them as “malpractice.”
You Have to Admit It’s Getting Better
In February 2025, President Trump issued an executive order (“Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”) directing federal agencies to prioritize biological sex in women’s sports. Later, the House passed a bill stipulating that Title IX protections are based on biological sex at birth (which Senate Democrats blocked). As of today, 29 states have enacted laws requiring student-athletes to compete on teams that match their biological sex at birth, which the Supreme Court is currently reviewing. Gender sanity will prevail because the vast majority of Americans do not want men playing in women’s sports.
79% of Americans surveyed believe men should be barred from competing in women’s sports, including 64% of Independents and 67% of Democrats (source: The New York Times). This common sense also informs public opinion on gender re-assignment; 68% of adults oppose puberty-blocking medication for transgender children under age 16 (source: The Washington Post).
The national consensus is undeniable: a super-majority believes sex is assigned at birth, girls sports should be protected, and gender reassignment surgeries should remain on hold until age 19. Which is to say most, if not all, Americans recognize a bad idea when they see it. And THAT is why the looney left is destined to lose the culture war.