Rep. Andy Ogles Backs Bill Stripping Federal Funding from Youth Transgender Studies

Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) is backing a Republican bill to prohibit taxpayer dollars from funding research that facilitates “gender-affirming care” for minor children. The bill was written after two transgender children took their own lives in one federally funded study.

The No Taxpayer Funding for Researchers Who Prey on Children Act would prohibit any individual or group that previously engaged in a study facilitating “gender-affirming care” for minors from receiving federal funding.  Representative Josh Breechen (R-OK-02) introduced this bill on Thursday.

Before thanking Ogles and the other co-sponsors, Breechen stated Americans should be “outraged to learn that nearly $31 million” in tax dollars “are funding youth transgender studies that have even led to the suicides of two participants” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Americans should be outraged to learn that nearly $31 million of our taxpayer dollars are funding youth transgender studies that have even led to the suicides of two participants.

I just introduced the No Taxpayer Funding for Researchers Who Prey on Children Act to prevent…

— Congressman Josh Brecheen (@RepBrecheen) November 2, 2023

Though the Republican congressmen did not identify the research Breechen referenced, one study published in January claims that medically transitioning minors “improved appearance congruence and psychosocial functioning” in patients, but researchers warned the “most common adverse event was suicidal ideation,” which was reported in 3.5 percent of participants.

Two of the minor participants took their own lives over the course of the study, and a British academic warned that extrapolating the suicide data would represent “an annual suicide rate of 317 per 100,000,” which is “significantly higher” than previously published data indicates.

“The researchers conducting these studies are advocates for harming minors and are using our tax dollars to prey on children and advance their far-Left agenda,” Breechen said in a statement. “This legislation is unfortunately needed to prevent researchers from receiving any more of our tax dollars for future studies or experiments.”

News that Ogles backs the bill broke as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) appeals its lawsuit to have Tennessee’s law banning child gender transition surgeries overturned to the Supreme Court. The group sued Tennessee after the SB 1 passed in March.

The bill also comes after the National Health Service (NHS) of England published new guidance that meant England now ranks among a growing list of European countries that prohibit or restrict transgender medical treatments for minors. The NHS began by issuing draft guidance in October 2022 that what the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine wrote represents the total “abandonment of the ‘gender-affirming model” promoted in the United States.

In July, the NHS formalized its decision with new guidance that specifically prohibits puberty-blocking drugs for minors, except for minor patients enrolled in research studies, with The New York Times reporting the body determined “there is not enough evidence to support their safety or clinical effectiveness as a routinely available treatment.”

The Times noted that England joins Finland, France, and Norway in urging caution when it comes to child gender transitions.

Should a similar view be adopted in the United States, the Republican-backed bill could prevent inadvertent taxpayer funding of childhood gender transitions for research purposes.

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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News, and also reports for The Tennessee Star and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].