The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government held a hearing on the horrors of child transgender medical interventions Thursday. Here are the highlights:
Chloe Cole: ‘Let Me Be Your Final Warning’
Chloe Cole, a 19-year-old detransitioner who had a double mastectomy, testified before lawmakers about the “nightmare” she experienced as a victim of adolescent transgender ideology.
“It’s caused permanent changes to my body. My voice will forever be deeper, my jawline sharper, my nose longer,” she said. “My bone structure permanently masculinized. My Adam’s apple more prominent. My fertility unknown. I look in the mirror sometimes, and I feel like a monster.”
“My childhood was ruined, along with thousands of detransitioners that I know through our networks,” Cole said, after beginning medical attempts to transition at the age of 12.
Cole announced a lawsuit in February against the doctors who operated on her.
Cole Addresses Parent Of Trans-Identified Daughter
Cole broke down in the hearing when at one point, she addressed another witness on the panel who is a professional counselor and parent of a child in pursuit of transgender medical interventions. Myriam Reynolds is the mother of an 18-year-old daughter who has identified as male since she was 11 years old with parental encouragement.
When Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy asked Cole to respond to the other witnesses on the panel, Cole directed her remarks to Reynolds.
“I understood that Mrs. Reynolds is scared for her child, and I just want to set the record straight that I don’t hate her; I don’t think anybody in this room hates her,” said Cole. “In fact, I see my own mother and my own father in her and that clearly she really loves her child, and she’s doing the best with what she’s been given.”
“Unfortunately, it’s not much, and for that, I’m sorry. I think every parent deserves the utmost grace and guidance with how to help their child. That being said, I don’t wish for her child to have the same result that I did,” she added.
Lia Thomas Teammate Says Swimmers Were Told To Undergo ‘Re-education’
Paula Scanlan, a former swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, testified she and her teammates were compelled to change in the women’s locker room with male teammate Lia Thomas by school athletic officials “18 times per week.”
“When we tried to voice our concern to the Athletic Department, we were told that Lia swimming and being in our locker room was non-negotiable, and we were offered psychological services to attempt to re-educate us to become comfortable with the idea of undressing in front of a male,” Scanlan said. “To sum up the university’s response: we, the women, were the problem, not the victims. We were expected to conform — to move over and shut up. Our feelings didn’t matter.”
Scanlan testified the school required women to change in front of their male peers despite prior history as victims of sexual misconduct.
“I know of women with sexual trauma who are adversely impacted by having biological males in their locker room without their consent,” she said. “And I am one of these women. I was sexually assaulted on June 3, 2016, in a bathroom. I was able to forgive my attacker, but violence against women still exists.”
Thomas became a mascot of male domination over women’s sports when he began to rack up championship titles over female competition. Last year, Thomas won first place in the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championship in the 500-yard freestyle.
Democrat Recommends ‘Barriers’ In Women’s Locker Rooms
Tennessee Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen offered a solution to female athletes uncomfortable with men in women’s locker rooms.
“I think Penn didn’t deal with your situation like they could have and should have,” Cohen said to Scanlan, explaining how the school should have put up “some type of different barriers in the women’s area of the locker room.”
It’s almost as if separated locker rooms could do the trick.
