While dozens of Republican-led states are moving decisively to restrict or prohibit irreversible transgender surgeries, cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers, Alaska continues to spend public money to underwrite these devastating practices, both for adults and minors.
According to a new report from LifeSiteNews, 14 states have adopted laws to either ban or limit so-called “gender transitions” for minors in 2023. These states include Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.
Six other states are taking legislative or executive actions, some of which are tied up in court. Additionally, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Texas have already enacted laws or executive orders to restrict transgender procedures on minors.
Alaska, however, began paying for these interventions in 2021 when the Dunleavy administration decided to settle a federal court case with plaintiffs demanding that the state foot the bill through the Alaska Medicaid program – including Denali KidCare. At the time, state officials said the administration did not believe Alaska’s ban against publicly funded transgender interventions would hold up in federal court.
Powerful hormonal interventions that arrest or stunt natural puberty in gender-confused kids can lead to serious and life-altering medical side effects.
Alaska now has multiple medical entities that provide a litany of physiological, hormonal and behavioral “services” aimed at manipulating the outward appearance of gender-confused patients so they can attempt to pass as members off the opposite sex.
While no Alaska businesses advertise surgeries such as breast removal, or manipulation of sexual organs, the state does pay for these proceedures. Clinics, such as the Seattle Children’s Hospital, now advertise these services directly to Alaskans.
Anchorage’s Providence Hospital offers cross-sex hormones, while clinics like Full Spectrum Health in Anchorage and Chena Health in Fairbanks, openly market hormonal drugs to the LGBTQ community. Additionally, Psychology Today lists dozens of so-called “gender-affirming” psychologists and therapists who now operate in communities all across Alaska where they encourage and enable minors and adults to present as the opposite sex.
The Alaska Watchman recently asked the state Department of Health to release information on the number and type of transgender services Alaska has underwritten since 2021. That data will be published once available.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
Nationally, roughly 300,000 adolescents are estimated to identify as “transgender,” according to a recent LifeSiteNews report. This includes tens of thousands of youth who have undergone transgender surgeries or drugs in recent years.
Powerful hormonal interventions that arrest or stunt natural puberty in gender-confused kids can lead to serious and life-altering medical side effects, including heart problems, reduced bone mass, interruption to natural brain development and permanent sterilization.
While “transitioning” minors is dangerous, it is also extremely profitable, as hospital officials acknowledged in a Daily Wire report last September. Genital surgery can bring in more than $25,000, while breast removal or additions can run between $3,000 and $10,000. Puberty blocking drugs cost roughly $1,200 each month.
TAKING ACTION
— Click here to contact Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
