GIVING UP?

Vanderbilt Suspends Trans Care Treatment for Minors After Far-Right Attacks

The hospital system says it is conducting an internal review, imperiling care for months, in the wake of bogus far-right claims.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has announced it will be temporarily suspending gender-affirming treatments for patients under 18 as it conducts an internal clinical review and considers new research, a process it predicts may take a few months. But the review comes weeks after unhinged comments from far-right political commentator Matt Walsh, who falsely likened the surgeries and hormonal treatments to castration and mutilation. A frenzy of attacks by right-wing extremists have emerged, including death threats and the doxxing of doctors at the hospital. “Among those patients under 18 receiving transgender care, an average of 5 per year have received gender-affirming surgical procedures,” the hospital wrote in a letter to Rep. Jason Zachary (R-TN), noting that trans people are nationally and historically underserved by the country’s healthcare systems. “Contrary to some media reports, all were at least 16 years of age, none have received genital procedures, and parental consent to these surgeries was obtained in all cases.”