Louisiana mom of 'trans kid' testifies to state House that eating green vegetables is a sign of trans identity

The Louisiana House Health and Welfare Committee heard testimony Tuesday from detransitioners who support a proposed ban on child sex changes as well as bizarre stories from mothers of so-called “trans kids” who oppose the ban, including one who thought her young daughter’s liking for raw green vegetables was a sign she was a boy.

HB 463, known as the Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act, was proposed by Rep. Gabe Firment (R). It would prohibit doctors from performing experimental sex changes on those under 18. The Health and Welfare Committee heard hours of testimony from those supporting and opposing the bill.

One mother described her female child being a very difficult baby who never slept, cried all the time, and then displayed odd food choices such as a fixation on raw green vegetables. The mother attributed this to her female child being transgender and eating the green vegetables as a way to boost testosterone. However, insomnia and odd food choices based upon texture are classic signs of childhood autism. It is common for autistic children to have a strong preference for food of a certain texture, such as crunchy raw vegetables.

Then came a mother of twin girls who told the story of buying a toy tool bench for her girls when they were 18 months old. At the time, one was drawn to “boy toys” and she joked that if the child came out as a man later in life, she couldn’t say she hadn’t seen it coming. When her daughter started to articulate that she was a boy, the mother interpreted the tool bench as a sign that even at 18 months, she had been able to sense what her child knew all along.

The committee heard that the girl who liked playing with tools is now 11 years old and the family is looking into puberty suppression to prevent the child from "growing the body" of a woman. The mother assured the committee that her female child was not a woman.

“He shouldn’t be in a woman’s body, and honestly, I don’t think he could survive if we forced him into it,” said the mother.

She went on to plead with the committee to block the ban, saying her family was considering moving out of state should bills like this continue.

The committee also heard from Chloe Cole and Prisha Mosley, both detransitioned young women, who told of the harm they came to at the hands of gender-affirming doctors.

Cole told of how she was put on puberty blockers and testosterone when she was just 13 years old, at an age when she “didn’t know what things like cervixes or ovulation were or how the full menstrual cycle worked yet.”

“I was given a double mastectomy, and my breasts, an important part of my sexuality and future motherhood, were removed in the name of a political ideology at only 15 years old,” she told the committee.

Two years later, Cole still experiences complications from her medically unnecessary bilateral mastectomy and says that doctors dismiss her complaints and offer her no support.

She said her parents were coerced by her doctors, told that “there was no choice other than having a dead daughter or a living trans son,” even though she wasn’t suicidal at the time.

“My parents biggest mistake was trusting them,” Cole concluded.

Prisha Mosley testified next, and told the committee she was just 15 years old when “trans-identified adults found [her] online” and convinced her that she had been born in the wrong body.

She described suffering from serious mental health issues at the time, and dealing with the trauma of being raped at age 14.

“At age 17, high doses of testosterone were injected into my anorexic body, and one year later, my healthy breasts were removed,” said Mosley.

She described the severe and irreversible effects of taking testosterone, including joint and voice pain, as well as facing an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Mosley also suffers from vaginal atrophy so severe that she cannot use tampons.

“Large parts of my adult life were taken from me as a mentally ill teenager and I mourn this loss every day,” she said.

"The girl I was was gone, and has been replaced by a medical experiment. I support any bill that prevents someone else form suffering the harms of gender-affirming care,” Mosley concluded.