Republican lawmakers called for a hearing into transgender healthcare on Monday evening after listening to emotional accounts from Americans who underwent surgery to change genders only to regret it and reverse their procedures.
"We need to get the truth out, and we need to be courageous in it. And there's some uncomfortable terminology being used here today, but doggone it, this is real," Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital after saying he would call for a hearing on the matter. "And for people to be going alone on this and getting, you know, getting told bad information – we're elected leaders, and so we need to buck up on this and help lead and get good information out for folks."
He and other members of the GOP's new Anti-Woke Caucus, including its Chair Jim Banks, R-Ind., held a roundtable on Capitol Hill Monday to hear from medical experts who have worked with minors and young adults trying to de-transition, as well as two activists who have de-transitioned themselves.
The first to speak was 18-year-old Chloe Cole, who described undergoing multiple procedures between the ages of 13 and 17 and said her parents were warned she would be suicidal if she was not allowed to transition into a boy.
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"They emotionally manipulated my parents, telling him that there was no other option but to allow me to start this treatment," Cole told the lawmakers. "They had to choose, they said, between having a dead daughter or a live transgender son."
"It pains me that I'll never be able to breastfeed my children and experience that unique, beautiful bond. That I may not be able to conceive a child or actually give birth, or that I may never be able to have that level of sexual functioning or pleasure on par with fully-formed adults," she continued.
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She also accused the government of promoting gender-affirming procedures for profit:
"I believe that the United States government has either been blissfully ignorant to the fact that this has been happening for over a decade, or they've been keeping the public unaware for personal gain. I've learned quite a bit from testifying within state legislatures within the last year. I think the most common lesson is that if the politician, whether they're Republican or Democrat, is funded by Big Pharma or a major liberal hospital, their moral compass will disappear."
After Cole spoke, Walt Heyer, 82, recalled his childhood of abuse before recounting his own experience transitioning during adulthood in 1983 and later de-transitioning in 1991. Heyer said his grandmother would have him wear a dress when he visited her at the age of four, and that he appreciated the positive affirmation he received from her for it. He blamed it for the subsequent abuse he suffered at the hands of other family members.
"If you don't think that crossdressing kids doesn't have long-range effects, I want you to hear me. It does," Heyer said. "It destroyed my entire childhood. As a result of wearing the purple dress, my dad got angry with me and he used to beat me with a hardwood floor plank because he was trained to shape me into the man that he expected me to be. As a result of that purple dress, his adopted brother sexually molested me."
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Both Cole and Heyer accused the physicians that guided their transition of abandoning them when they sought help transitioning back to their birth gender.
"They don't care about the outcomes. They don't care what happens," Heyer said of the industry. "I lost $2 million in income due to the fact that [the psychologist] said I needed hormones and surgery that's on me. I was stupid enough to believe it, it destroyed my life and destroyed my marriage. I became an alcoholic and a drug addict and I became homeless. Now I'm standing up and telling you, you need to stand up and stop this insane nonsense."
After the testimonies Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., turned to his colleagues on the panel and asked, "I wonder, who would have a hearing about this?"
He followed up by calling on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to hold a hearing on the matter.
LaMalfa agreed, adding to the witnesses, "It'd be great to have folks like you."
"It's not getting out there and you know, we, not to be too political…we control the House and we can publicize this stuff," LaMalfa said. "It needs to happen."
