President Joe Biden on Monday tweeted to "brave" transgender young Americans Monday that he "has your back."
"To transgender Americans across the country — especially the young people who are so brave — I want you to know your President has your back. During Pride Month — and all the time," Biden tweeted Monday night.
The tweet came during the beginning of Pride Month, but, as the president's statement suggested, Biden has been a supporter of controversial medical treatments for teens and children with gender dysphoria , and for those born male competing in female sports for some time.
During a campaign town hall event in October, Biden told the mother of a child who is transgender, "The idea that an 8-year-old child, a 10-year-old child, decides, you know, 'I want to be transgender, that's what I think I'd like to be, it'd make my life a lot easier' — there should be zero discrimination."
On his first day in office, Biden made it one of his top agenda items, signing an executive order which included allowing school athletes born male to participate against biological females.
Biden wrote that day on Twitter:
"Let's be clear: Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time. There is no room for compromise when it comes to basic human rights."
But backlash against portions of the order ensued. Some parents and athletes themselves decried the rules forcing biological girls to compete against transgender athletes who they say typically have an advantage.
Biological girls once slated for college sports scholarships are now complaining they face losing them because their stats have been lowered.
"On day 1, Biden unilaterally eviscerates women's sports," author Abigail Shrier tweeted. "Any educational institution that receives federal funding must admit biologically-male athletes to women's teams, women's scholarships, etc. A new glass ceiling was just placed over girls."
The issue of gender dysphoria among youth is also fraught with controversy. A 2017 report published by the American College of Pediatricians found that, "Experts on both sides of the pubertal suppression debate agree that within this context, 80 percent to 95 percent of children with GD accepted their biological sex by late adolescence."
That report can still be seen on an archived page at the Internet Archive.org, but the now controversy-producing words bring only "Page Not Found" at the organization's current site.
Among concerns are sterility and and reports from "detransitioners" who say they later regretted their decision and transitioned back to their original sex.
A "60 Minutes" report in May focusing on "detransitioners" found that some claim they got little counseling before they were given hormone therapy. Experts are divided on whether such therapy, which in teens can delay puberty, is reversible.
Nevertheless, such teens typically go through such personal decisions under the guidance of their parents. This would not be the case for trans homeless teens, under guidance once suggested by Dr. Rachel Levine, currently serving as Biden's Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Levine is trans, born Richard Levine, and in 2017 recommended, "accelerating" cross-sex hormones for homeless teens with gender dysphoria who are estranged from their parents.
Levine argued during an address titled "It's a Transgeneration: Issues in Transgender Medicine," that "street" teens should not have to first go through the normal procedure of puberty blockers, but directly to the administering cross-sex hormones.
Levine described such teens as "essentially thrown out by their parents because of their gender identity and expression."