Once, when growing up, I, Serenity, had a dress-up day at my school. The other girls in my class wanted to be princesses and fairies, but in my confident and stubborn fashion, I desired a different approach. I wanted to be Batman. My parents were a little surprised, but they got me a costume and never questioned my femininity because of it.
Unfortunately, modern-day leftists would have a much more cynical view. They might have questioned my identity as a girl, creating a crisis that was never there. I was just a child wanting to dress as a superhero.
On June 3, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing titled “Protecting Our Children: Exposing the Dangers of Irreversible Gender Transition Procedures on Minors.” Several witnesses took the stand, including de-transitioner Chloe Cole, Dr. Kurt Miceli, the medical director of Do No Harm, and Shannon Minter (a woman who identifies as a man), the legal director of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights.
In the hearing, Democratic senators attempted to deflect the seriousness of gender mutilation. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) absurdly claimed that the concern of Republicans for minors falling prey to a false and radical ideology was “kicking around” a group of people in the same way as the Jim Crow era. Comparing the fight against the medically unnecessary, permanent surgical mutilation of minors to racial segregation is, of course, absurd.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) noted that, in a 1997 journal article titled “Diagnosis and Treatment of Gender Identity Disorder in Children,” Minter wrote that gender dysphoria in girls is manifested by identification with “powerful male figures, such as Batman or Superman.” As I sat in the room, this caused me to reflect on my experience as a child: if I had been born into a family that believed in this absurd ideology, would I have been pushed to consider whether I was a boy just because I wanted to dress in a black cape?
While this may seem outlandish, this is a true phenomenon shaping our nation.
Chloe Cole’s testimony is the epitome of the effects these harmful and irreversible gender transitions have on young people. At 13, Cole and her parents were convinced by doctors that she was going to commit suicide if she did not transition to become a boy. “Professionals” in white coats told her family “transition your daughter or bury her,” a chilling ultimatum that leaves parents who have children experiencing gender dysphoria feeling like they have no choice. From the stand, Chloe recalled that no doctor or therapist questioned why she was experiencing these feelings, but rather validated that she was a “boy trapped in a girl’s body,” going against every aspect of natural biology.
She began to take puberty blockers and underwent a double mastectomy, which left her with massive scars across her chest – removing her womanhood before she had even finished puberty. Doctors convinced Cole that these surgeries would make her feel whole; however, all they had done was mutilate her young and healthy body. Cole recounted, “The peace and self-acceptance I was promised never came.” Recognizing the horror of what had taken place, she decided to detransition at 17 and has since become an advocate to stop the madness of butchering children’s bodies. Cole revealed how heartbroken she is because of her experience by asserting, “This is not medicine. Medicine heals the sick. Me being female was not a disease. The lie was the disease.”
When the world touts the lie that “you were born in the wrong body,” God says otherwise. Psalm 139:13-14 declares, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” There is no accident in God’s design. Every child is beautifully created with the utmost love and care, formed exactly as God ordained.
To hinder a child from knowing who God made them to be and to subject them to irreversible surgeries and lifelong hormonal dependency under the guise of care is not compassion; it is harmful. The direction we set for our children matters eternally, not just medically. Consider the words of Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Scripture reminds us that we have been beautifully created, with purpose and intention, by a God who makes no mistakes. To know that He made us exactly as we were meant to be is a comfort the world cannot offer. Our bodies are not our own; they are a reflection of God and His truth. We are stewards of what He has given us, and that stewardship begins with the children in our care, in the next generation. We must shower our little ones with this hopeful truth, so they will know how to face the lies of the culture.
We must actively reject the mutilation of children and call upon Congress to defund entities like Planned Parenthood that hand out puberty blockers and participate in these irreversible procedures, while receiving millions in taxpayer dollars. After his call to speak the truth and protect children, Sen. Hawley revealed, “The Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts advertises gender-affirming hormone therapy to minors who are 16 years old. In fact, urging them to participate in these studies and taking the hormones so they can get compensated.” He also conveyed the absurdity that there is “a billion and a half dollars diverted from Medicaid and Medicare,” taken from those in need to fund Planned Parenthood. This is not a partisan issue. This is a human and generational issue. The children being affected today are the future of this nation, and their wounds—physical, emotional, and spiritual—will outlast any legislation.
The way we respond to this moment is crucial. There is still time: time to speak, time to act, and time to point a broken generation back to the God who made them and loves them completely. They are not beyond the reach of God’s healing and restoration, and neither is this culture. The world has offered our children confusion and called it freedom. But there is a better offer: the truth that sets them free, a Creator who knows them fully, and a grace that holds them still. Let us not be silent. Let us stand in the gap for our kids and our future.
Sarai McCullough and Serenity Porch are interning with CWA’s Government Relations department
