'Gender affirming' CHAPLAIN offered by pediatric gender clinic at Kansas children's hospital

Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Miss. offers Gender Pathways Services as part of its pediatric division that provides, among other "gender affirming" services, the aid of a "gender affirming" Chaplain.

This religious figure, Children's Mercy writes, is a "A Board-Certified Chaplain" that will provide gender affirming support which facilitates spiritual wellbeing and the promotion of respectful and compassionate relationships. Resources are available to guide families in search of open and affirming communities of faith."



In bringing a chaplain on board for sex change treatments for chidlren the Children's Mercy Hospital has made the claim that medical treatment for children's gender confusion issues is spiritually sanctioned and in line with the teachings of a higher power. The chaplain can also help families find different faith communities, ones that are more in-line with gender ideology.



The kind of "gender affirming" support provided by Children's Mercy includes endocrinologists who will "discuss puberty-blocking and gender affirming hormones," and will "help patients navigate their gender-affirming journey."

Providers will also discuss psych meds for children and teens who are on their "gender-affirming journey," and will suppress menstruation for teen girls who would rather be boys who don't have to menstruate at all.

Speech therapy is also available via "gender-affirming voice coaching," so that children and teens who are at war with their bodies in order to realize their true selves can disguise the sound of their own voices.

In service to the promotion of their sex change therapies for children, Children's Mercy shares a video with a mother and her trans-identified biological female child who reached out to the hospital when her child expressed a wish to live as the opposite sex.

"I didn't know what being transgender meant," the mother says in the promo for Children's Mercy gender services said. "And I needed confirmation that this was the real deal, that this gender dysphoria was real. We called Children's Mercy and the person on the other end of the line said 'you've called the right place.'"

Right away, this mother felt better, felt like she could put her child in the hands of these doctors, and perhaps a chaplain, that would guide her child Alex on a "gender-affirming journey."

"It was such a relief, it was such a relief to know that there was somebody I could talk to and somebody who would have answers for me and somebody who was going to guide me on what to do for this child," she said. "Wonderful."

The promo skips to a doctor's appointment for Alex, where pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Angela Turpin says that "Alex is a 17-year-old transgender male, and he is on testosterone therapy." Alex notes in the video that this was a "yearly check-up."

Alex says that the diagnosis of gender dysphoria received by doctors at Children's Mercy was really important because without that, "there was no way to medically transition, it was never going to happen."

Turpin says social transition is the first step, and feeling good about that social transition leads to medical transition. She also cites statistics that say 30 to 40 percent of gender dysphoric people attempt suicide.

"Untreated gender dysphoria can cause 30 to 40 percent of those people to attempt suicide. So we're hoping that by catching people early, that we're diagnosing the depression, that we're diagnosing the anxiety. If this were my child, I would expect somebody to be out there taking care of them," she said.

"Children's Mercy has our kids' best interests at heart, always," Turbin said.

Those statistics, however, have been debunked. 

"Despite the unwaveringly confident manner in which these claims are often asserted, there is no good evidence that failing to 'affirm' minors in their 'gender identity' will increase the likelihood of them committing suicide," said Leor Sapir, a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and researcher with a PhD in Political Science.

"Gender activists commonly argue that roughly four in ten transgender-identified youth (TIY) attempt suicide when not socially and medically 'affirmed.' Does the research bear this out? The simple answer is: no," Sapir adds.

Yet, the affirm or suicide concept is one which is routinely pushed by activists and health care providers as to why children and teens must be allowed to undergo medical sex change treatments from puberty blockers, to cross-sex hormones, to mastectomies and other surgeries. There have been reports from destransitioners who have said that mental health professionals have encouraged them to tell their parents and doctors they are suicidal in order to gain access to treatment.

Alex said "I couldn't be happier," and explained how the doctors allowed Alex to make the medical choices "to stay alive." 

"So many people in my community die before they're adults, so you can't treat them as adults if they don't make it there, so you have to treat them as children, because if you don't they may not be alive tomorrow," Alex said.

Alex's mother reiterated that concern, and clearly had fears that her child would be lost forever if she did not go along with the sex change treatments.

It is unclear if Alex or Alex's mother consulted with the "gender affirming" chaplain to consider their spiritual needs.