On December 4, Dr. Jennifer Bauwens, Director of the Center for Family Studies at the Family Research Council (FRC), addressed a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1 (SB 1). The bill aims to restrict “gender transition” procedures for minors, which supporters argue can lead to sterilization and ongoing medical intervention.
Dr. Bauwens, who holds a Ph.D. from New York University and has experience as both a researcher and clinician focusing on trauma treatment for children and adults, spoke about her concerns regarding such procedures. She said:
“I’ve spent my career protecting vulnerable and abused children. Today, I stand with all of you to continue the important fight for the safety and well-being of hurting children. Every child deserves the opportunity to receive safe, effective, and loving care when they are in pain.
“Unfortunately, some in my profession have set aside everything we know about child development, neurology, and trauma and have instead prioritized ideology over the tenets of good practice.
“These individuals willfully ignore good research–which has been funded by our own government–that clearly shows that children lack the developmental capacity and judgment to understand the long-term consequences of altering or removing their healthy body parts.
“The fact is, ‘gender-affirming care’ is the most physiologically invasive practice within the entire mental health field. No other practice used to treat a mental health condition has proven to be this intrusive, since the lobotomy. Despite this reality, ‘gender-affirming care’ has been permitted across our country, even though it has been shown to be harmful. These procedures should’ve never been tried on a single child.
“Our children and families have been lied to. My profession has told children that all their problems will go away if they deny their biology and try to live as someone else.
“For those who have already been harmed, I pray for you to be healed from the destruction caused by these procedures. I pray for you to be healed from the lies that you were told by professionals in my field who made you believe that ‘gender-affirming care’ would make your pain stop. I also pray for those who genuinely believe that ‘gender-affirming care’ is good. We care about you enough to tell you the truth. We will continue to pray and fight for you, too, that you would receive true healing and be able to enjoy who God created you to be,” Bauwens concluded.
The FRC previously worked with partners in Arkansas during 2021 on similar legislation—the first such law passed in any state—and recently submitted an amicus brief related to this case before the Supreme Court. According to FRC’s statement accompanying Dr. Bauwens’ remarks, their brief argues that major American medical societies supporting gender transition treatments for minors are influenced more by politics than science; it claims these organizations rely on limited studies lacking robust methodology or significant results while overlooking contrary data from Western Europe where some countries are reconsidering or limiting such treatments.
Further information can be found through FRC’s joint publication with CURE titled “The Trans Youth Phenomenon: Critiques & Hard Questions” (https://www.frc.org/booklet/the-trans-youth-phenomenon-critiques-hard-questions). Video footage of Dr. Bauwens’ speech is available via download through Stand Firm app stores at Apple or Google Play platforms; her full speech text can also be accessed online (https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=LK24L09&f=LK24L09).
