The4PM

THE NUMBERS

3,256 people underwent gender transition operations in 2016, the ASPS reported in 2017, the first year the organization began tracking gender surgery data. The next year, the number of procedures spiked by 155%, to 8,304.

WHY DID IT HAPPEN

The expansion of gender surgeries can be traced back to two actions carried out under President Obama’s administration.

• In 2014, the administration overruled a law which blocked the use of Medicare funds for gender transition surgeries.
• Two years later, a ruling by Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services made it illegal to deny care on the basis of gender identity and pressured healthcare providers to cover gender reassignment procedures.

THE CONTROVERSY

Defenders of the surgeries have argued they’re medically necessary and rare: “Gender confirmation” accounted for a fraction of the 2.3 million cosmetic surgeries reported by the ASPS in 2020.

Vanderbilt opened its trans clinic in 2018. During a lecture the same year, Dr. Shayne Taylor explained how she convinced Nashville to get into the gender transition game. She emphasized that it's a "big money maker," especially because the surgeries require a lot of "follow ups" pic.twitter.com/zedM7HBCBe

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 20, 2022

But critics have questioned the ethics of removing body parts to accommodate identity, especially when it comes to minors.

• In recent years, Republican lawmakers have put forth legislation aimed at barring doctors from performing transgender surgeries on minors.
• Daily Wire contributor Matt Walsh has been among the most prominent voices speaking out against the practice.
• Walsh recently published an exposé on Vanderbilt University’s Health Clinic, which included 2018 footage of a clinic doctor touting the moneymaking potential of gender transition surgeries.

THE QUOTE

Ochoa noted in an essay published in early September by The Conversation that “Latinx,” which has been adopted by progressives as an alternative to the gendered words “Latino” or “Latina,” is used by less than 5% of Hispanic Americans as a self-descriptor.

• “When I first heard ‘Latinx’ in 2017, I thought it was progressive and inclusive, but I quickly realized how problematic it was,” she wrote.
• “Individuals who self-identify as Latinx or are aware of the term are most likely to be U.S.-born, young adults from 18 to 29 years old. They are predominately English-speakers and have some college education,” she argued. “In other words, the most marginalized communities do not use Latinx. Scholars, in my view, should never impose social identities onto groups that do not self-identify that way.”
• Ochoa’s proposed that inclusivity advocates instead use the term, “Latine,” which is fashionable among some Latin American activists and conforms better to Spanish morphology.