Nebraska’s Let Them Grow Act

Nebraska’s Let Them Grow Act

By David D. Begley

Late in 2022, Tucker Carlson reported a story that Vanderbilt Medical Center was performing sex change operations and giving powerful hormones to minors.

Carlson and Libs of TikTok later reported (https://www.libsoftiktok.com/p/aoc-lied-about-me-on-the-house-floor) that the same things were going on at Boston Children’s Hospital.

I was aghast. I looked up the website of Nebraska Medicine. There were questionaries that suggested that the same thing was going on in Omaha. The full story came out yesterday.

By way of background, readers should know that Nebraska Medicine is a joint venture with the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Taxpayers fund UNMC. UNMC is a giant research and teaching operation. Nebraska Medicine and UNMC are economic powerhouses.

I wrote the general counsel (Anna L. Cramer) and the CEO of Nebraska Medicine (Dr. James Linder) and told them that this was unethical, grossly immoral and should be stopped. I also told them it was my legal opinion that any written consent by a parent on these medical procedures on a minor was not legally effective.

Nebraska state senator Kathleen Kauth also became aware of this sex change business. Readers should know that Nebraska state senators earn $12,000 a year and are term limited. To her great credit, Senator Kauth researched this issue, consulted with other states and drafted a narrow bill to protect minors. She lined up co-sponsors and invited guests to testify yesterday.

One of the first witnesses was college student Luka Hein (.https://www.wowt.com/2023/02/09/nebraska-lawmakers-hear-comments-gender-affirming-healthcare-youth/). Her words about the counseling her parents received at Nebraska Medicine were astounding, “They were told, ‘Would you rather have a dead daughter, or a living son?’ These are not the words of a medical professional, but the words of an activist. I was just a teenager who needed actual help, not surgery.” Nebraska Medicine performed a double mastectomy at age 16 and gave her cross-sex hormones a few months later.

She now regrets her decision. It was all quite heartbreaking.

Another witness was a trans man who, as a woman, had given birth to two children although she was a lesbian. At age 42, she decided he was a man living in a woman’s body. His testimony was that over one million dollars has been spent on this transition; much of it out of pocket to him.

He said he’s constantly sick with infections. He has to take drugs and see doctors all the time. With his testimony, I realized that these trans patients are an annuity for the medical-industrial complex. A doctor later testified that this all started in 2017 when Obamacare began to allow insurance payments for these procedures.

A number of witnesses testified that these procedures were experimental. I quoted the New York Times on that very point. I also informed the committee that after World War II, the civilized world agreed that it was wrong to perform medical experiments on people; especially children.

Sweden and Finland have banned these treatments on minors because of the numerous and permanent adverse consequences.

One reason for the explosion amongst children who think they are the wrong sex is due to social media. TikTok is a big offender here. The kids go online and are convinced they would be happier switching genders.

One young woman from western Nebraska said that at age 12 she didn’t want to go through puberty. She was a tomboy and very athletic. If puberty blockers would have been available to her then, she would have agreed to it. “I needed to grow.”

Nine doctors testified in favor of the bill. They did so contrary to the testimony of both the Nebraska Medical Association and Nebraska Medicine. I applaud them.

One doctor quoted the science that the human brain isn’t fully developed until people are in their twenties. That’s part of the reason why society has restricted minors from voting, smoking and using alcohol.

General George C. Marshall was a great leader and public servant during World War II and thereafter. He was known as a man with great judgment. When faced with a difficult decision, he reportedly would ask himself, “What if I am wrong?”

I quoted General Marshall in support of the proposition that children should be required to wait before irreversible and permanent changes are worked on their bodies.

In the rally in the Capitol Rotunda before the hearing, Dr. Elizabeth Constance (Nebraska Medicine employee) said all the major medical organizations support “gender affirming care” for children and that the science is settled. The use of that Orwellian phrase should be the tip off for any clear-thinking person about what is going on here.

The science isn’t settled at all. One of the doctors in favor of the bill broke down how one major study was deeply flawed. And, of course, the actual results from Sweden, Finland and the UK are ignored by the Left. The Left uses this same playbook in the climate change scam. Medicine and science have become politicized and that’s a dangerous thing.

I was in the front row of the rally by the opponents. It was a big crowd of at least 200-300; many of them were children or teenagers. I snapped some photos and one contained some kids. Senator Machaela Cavanaugh asked me to stop. I did although I noted they were in a public space.

Part of the Left’s narrative is that it is unsafe to expose the identities of LGBTQ people and their supporters as they will otherwise be beat up or something. As part of that narrative a letter with anonymous signatures was presented in opposition to the bill. https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/02/06/letter-signed-by-1500-people-urges-childrens-hospital-to-oppose-proposed-gender-care-ban/

The opposite is true. Erin Brewer is a former trans kid. In first grade, she thought she was a boy. She later changed her mind and went back to being a woman. According to her, she’s been threatened by the LBGTQ community and her son was told that LGBTQ community wanted to kill her. Her words; not mine.

Nebraska has two LGBTQ Senators: Megan Hunt and John Fredickson. They accused their opponents of hate, ignorance, bigotry and being a threat to democracy. They also asserted that people and businesses will leave Nebraska if the Let Them Grow Act passed. Senator Hunt led the chant, “Trans people belong.” https://twitter.com/AlexMcLoon/status/1623395309874282497?cxt=HHwWgoC88dzbuoctAAAA

A political insider told me after the hearing that the bill might not pass. The Republicans are short one vote from having a filibuster-proof majority. Hard to believe that children can’t be protected in Nebraska.

Dr. Jean Amoura is the head of Nebraska Medicine’s gender clinic. The policy at Nebraska Medicine is that parents must sign a written consent before any treatment.  https://twitter.com/OutNebraska/status/1623475083279757314?cxt=HHwWhMCziZP_3octAAAA

My opinion is that such consent is not legally effective especially in light of the “suicide or transition” narrative that is pushed.

I also note that, to my knowledge, the Catholic and Methodist hospitals in Omaha aren’t in the business of changing the genders of minors. That’s a real standard of care problem for Nebraska Medicine in any future lawsuits.

Personally, I never thought I’d see the day where medical experiments on children were allowed in America. We’re morally unhinged.  The people who approved this at Nebraska Medicine should be fired.