HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra announced that moving forward, surgical and chemical treatments for people suffering from gender dysphoria will be treated like any other health care matter — and denying those treatments will be considered discrimination.  You knew this was coming when Congress gave the green light to Richard Levine, M.D. (a male pediatrician who thinks he's a woman named Rachel) to became assistant secretary of health.

On Monday, Becerra's HHS released a press release entitled "HHS Announces Prohibition on Sex Discrimination Includes Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity."  In it, Becerra announces that HHS will interpret Title IX through the filter of the Supreme Court's decision in Bostock v. Clayton County.  In the future, prohibiting discrimination against people claiming to be "transgender" will extend beyond workplace and public restroom discrimination.  It will now include denying medical treatment to so-called "transgender people."

The announcement is a masterpiece of duplicitous innocence and simplicity.  Levine is quoted as saying that treatment for transgender people is not at all different from treatment related to heart health or broken bones:

"The mission of our Department is to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation. All people need access to healthcare services to fix a broken bone, protect their heart health, and screen for cancer risk," said Dr. Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health.  "No one should be discriminated against when seeking medical services because of who they are."

So the problem is that transgender people are being turned away from health care despite broken arms and heart attacks?  Of course not!  The reality is that no one is denying people medical care because they are "transgender."  If you think you're a man and are having massive bleeding from endometriosis, any doctor in America will treat you — that is, the doctor figures out that, even though your chart says "Male," you need to see a gynecologist.  Likewise, if you think you're a woman but are having prostate problems, you'll eventually get to the right doctor and be treated appropriately.

What's sneaky here is the fact that people with gender dysphoria — that is, people who believe they are not their actual sex as determined by their genitalia and DNA — consider it "medical treatment" to demand chemical castration and surgical mutilation.  While these treatments may give some mental solace, they also carry huge risks.  Hormone treatments sterilize people and increase the risks of cancer and heart disease.  As for surgery, especially for males, the outcomes can be tragic and awful.

However, while those who claim to be "transgender" want these procedures, certain that they will put an end to the terrible feeling of being in the wrong body, many doctors oppose them.  Some oppose them on religious grounds because no religious doctrine condones magically switching sex through plastic surgery.

Others oppose the procedures because they believe that doctors shouldn't cut into or chemically treat healthy bodies.  These doctors would be just as opposed to doing stomach-stapling for or providing diet pills to an anorexic.  Under the new HHS policies, though, these doctors can be prosecuted for discriminating against their patients, in the same way they would be prosecuted if they were to refuse to set a black man's broken bone or treat his heart attack.

What's even worse is that, by treating "transgenderism" as a medical condition that should be "treated" just as one treats broken bones or heart attacks, HHS is laying the groundwork for forcing parents to "treat" their children's body dysphoria with surgery or dangerous hormones — or risk losing custody, just as they would if they didn't treat their child's leukemia or appendicitis.

Again, we all knew that this was coming.  It was perfectly clear when Sen. Rand Paul, a doctor, pushed Levine about his position on surgical or hormonal treatments for children, AKA genital mutilation.  Levine refused to answer, instead deflecting in a careful way that showed he'd been prepped for the question.

While I was watching Tucker Carlson last night, I saw an ad for a new Fox Nation special called In the Valley of Sin, which examines Wenatchee child abuse prosecutions, which were the last and worst outbreak of the 1980s'/early 1990s' hysteria about child sex rings in preschools and church communities.  That ad reminded me that, when obsessed, power-hungry (and often mentally ill) people get too much power, they wreak a path of destruction that destroys thousands or tens of thousands of lives.  With the new HHS mandate, we're on the cusp of a horrific disaster in which untold numbers of children will be mutilated to appease the woke gods.

Image: Richard Levine.  YouTube screen grab.  (And yes, I'm "deadnaming" him.  Because he's a dangerous activist, I will not accord him the courtesy of supporting his delusions.)

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