The state Senate Majority Policy Committee Tuesday held a hearing in Altoona to receive testimony in support of a bill proposed by committee member Judy Ward, R-Blair, that would prohibit “irreversible” transgender treatment for minors — both medicinal and surgical.

The committee took testimony from leaders of activist organizations and from an individual who underwent gender transitioning, but who later rejected it.

There is little evidence to support the effectiveness or necessity of “sex-trait modifications” for minors, especially given that “the vast majority” outgrow their gender dysphoria if they’re allowed to go through natural puberty, according to speaker Kurt Miceli, a Delaware County psychiatrist and medical director of Do No Harm Action.

The issue has metastasized in recent years, probably due to social “contagion,” rather than naturally occuring gender dysphoria, according to hearing participant Jamie Reed, a whistleblower from Missouri who used to work in a clinic for gender-affirming care.

Approximately 1.4 out of every 1,000 female adolescents have received a prescription for cross-sex hormones by the time they turn 18 nowadays, according to research published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association for Pediatrics — well in excess of the 1 in 10,000 to 40,000 prevalence for gender dysphoria listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, according to Miceli.

The “exponential” increase in gender dysphoria cases has been accompanied by “affirmation” treatment protocols without “guardrails,” according to Reed.

“Political ideology” has led to the removal of those guardrails, according to Miceli.

It usually starts with social transitioning, according to officials.

That tends to “concretize” the dysmorphia, leading to later treatments that are irreversible, according to Reed.

In 2024, a coalition of 21 state attorneys general charged that “prevailing medical guidance in the U.S.” for gender care is “based more on political pressure and agendas rather than medical efficacy and sound medical judgment,” according to hearing participant Dan Bartkowiak, chief strategy officer of the Pennsylvania Family Council.

Many of those patients have “co-occurring mental health issues such as sexual trauma, eating disorders, anxiety, depression, ADHD and autism,” said participant January Littlejohn, a licensed counselor and senior fellow at Do No Harm — as well as the mother of a daughter who made it through years of “gender confusion,” but who is now “on a path of self-love in the body she was born in,” according to Littlejohn.

Often, parents of teens with gender dysphoria are “coerced into believing that their child would commit suicide if they did not affirm,” Littlejohn said.

“(But) we have a wealth of evidence showing that the suicide myth is at best not backed by evidence and at worse a total and intentional fabrication,” said participant Simon B. Amaya Price of Boston, who struggled with gender dysphoria as a teen.

Many parents are persuaded that the interventions “are safe and backed by high-quality evidence,” even though they’re not, according to Littlejohn.

Amaya Price “experienced emotional manipulation and malpractice” from his doctors, he said.

It led him to believe the “lie” about his gender identity for three years, until he realized “my true problems had nothing to do with the imaginary concept of gender identity,” he said.

His real problems stemmed from being sexually assaulted by an older boy when he was 14, near-daily homophobic bullying in middle school and undiagnosed autism, he said.

“(T)he vast majority of trans-identified children desist by adulthood if left unmedicalized,” Amaya Price said.

“Children and teens certainly cannot give informed consent because their brains are not fully developed until approximately age 25,” Littlejohn said.

After all, there are laws that prohibit youngsters from drinking, from driving and from other activities until designated threshold ages, one official said.

The U.S. would do well to emulate the United Kingdom, which has banned puberty blockers for minors, and Finland and Sweden, where gender reassignment for minors is considered experimental, according to Miceli.

The language of Ward’s proposal is being worked on in preparation for introduction as a bill, Ward said.

She doesn’t have a problem with transitioning by adults, she said.

“If you’re an adult, it’s your business,” she said. “You understand the consequences.”

That’s not true for minors, she said.

In Pennsylvania, at least 316 minors have undergone transgender surgeries, while 3,423 prescriptions for cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers have been written for minors, according to Amaya Price, citing insurance claim statistics.

Gillian Kratzer, chairwoman of the Blair County Democratic Committee, pushed back on the claims aired at the hearing.

She has a transgender family member.

“In 99 percent of cases, minors do not get gender-affirming surgery,” Kratzer said in a phone conversation after the meeting. “The barriers (for surgery) are extremely high.”

In general, the process for gender-affirming care is “thorough,” she added.

Before puberty, no medicines are prescribed, Kratzer said.

It generally starts with kids wearing clothing “they feel is appropriate to their gender,” in an attempt to make themselves look “on the outside” “who they are on the inside,” Kratzer said.

“That is gender-affirming care for kids who haven’t reached puberty,” she said.

Only at puberty are puberty blockers prescribed, she said.

The blockers put puberty on hold, she said.

“It’s a perfectly safe form of treatment,” she said.

After puberty blockers, “the next step, if the child and parents are OK with it,” are estrogen or testosterone, depending on what is appropriate, she said.

As with puberty blockers, that care is not irreversible, as the body continues to produce the kind of hormones in keeping with the biological sex of the individual, she said.

Contrary to the impression of gender care opponents, the percentage of detransitioners is “vanishingly small,” according to Kratzer.

Contrary to the normal Republican ideal, Ward’s proposal would take away decision-making power from parents whose children have gender dysphoria, Kratzer said.

“I’m a little confused why parents shouldn’t be able to make decisions with their children, (in the case of) something that Judy Ward doesn’t like,” Kratzer said.

Gender-affirming care can be “lifesaving,” given that children have committed suicide over the problem when it has been untreated, she said.

Imagine a cisgender person forced to wear clothes and a wig typical for the opposite gender every day, all day, she said.

Every time that person looks in the mirror, they would be troubled, because “it’s not who you are,” she said.

That is what a person with gender dysphoria experiences, she said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.