PCUSA declares support for body-deforming trans surgeries for kids
The Presbyterian Church (USA), the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States, has passed a measure expressing support for body-deforming sex-change surgeries for youth exhibiting gender dysphoria.
At a plenary session for the PCUSA's 227th General Assembly held last week, delegates voted 441-30 in favor of an overture called GEN-02, also known as “On Access to Healthcare.”
The rationale for the overture describes so-called “gender-affirming care” as “medically necessary and evidence based for the well-being of many transgender, non-binary, and gender- expansive people who experience symptoms of gender dysphoria or distress that result from having one’s gender identity not match their sex assigned at birth.”
GEN-02 also denounces state bans on the chemical and surgical mutilation of children's bodies, labeling them as stopping young people “from accessing medically necessary, safe health care backed by decades of research and supported by every major medical association representing over 1.3 million US doctors.”
The Rev. Olivia Lane, moderator of the 227th General Assembly’s Gender and Sexuality Justice Committee, explained to those gathered that her committee amended the overture to remove the phrase “including minors” from the text, which originally read “the PC(USA) supports all individuals, including minors, to have access to all medically necessary, evidence-based gender-affirming healthcare.”
According to Lane, this was done “not to exclude young people,” but rather at the request of the young adult advisory delegates who were on the committee.
“These delegates asked us to consider whether that phrase, however well-intentioned, might be weaponized to cause further harm to the very children it named,” Lane continued. “The committee heard that request and acted on it by providing comment with the clear and stated understanding that all individuals means exactly that. All, without exception, without qualification, and without age limit.”
Zayn Silva, a corresponding member with the Advocacy Committee for LGBTQIA+ Equity, who spoke in support of the measure, claimed that “this is a life-and-death matter,” and went on to recount the long-disproven claim that chopping off sex organs and other body parts can lower the suicide rates of people suffering from gender dysphoria (see here and here).
Studies have shown that "patients who have undergone gender affirmation surgery are associated with significantly higher risks of suicide, self-harm, and PTSD compared to general population control groups in this real-world database."
Debate over the measure was brief, as one of the moderators noted that none of the delegates queuing up to comment on the proposal intended to speak against the overture.
In recent years, there has been considerable debate about the trans medicalization of children who are confused about their sex.
The New York Times published a piece in 2022 showing that a growing number of medical professionals and formerly trans-identified people were concerned about the potential long-term harmful effects of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
In December 2024, the U.K.'s Department of Health and Social Care announced that it was banning the use of puberty-blocking drugs for children exhibiting gender dysphoria for the foreseeable future, with the one exception being for clinical trials.
“The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) has provided independent expert advice that there is currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children,” the department stated.
“Puberty blockers for the treatment of gender incongruence and/or gender dysphoria in under 18s were banned temporarily in May 2024 after the Cass Review found there was insufficient evidence to show they were safe. Legislation will be updated today to make the order indefinite and will be reviewed in 2027.”
In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a 400-plus-page report denouncing "gender-affirming care" for minors, calling it "invasive" and "usually irreversible."
"These interventions carry risk of significant harms including infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret," stated the HHS report's introduction.
"Meanwhile, systematic reviews of the evidence have revealed deep uncertainty about the purported benefits of these interventions."
The PCUSA isn't the only liberal mainline Protestant denomination that has denounced state bans on the bodily mutilation of children and youth suffering from gender dysphoria.
In March, Bishop Julius C. Trimble, general secretary of the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society, published an article supporting proposed federal legislation aimed at eliminating state-level bans on the controversial practice.
Mainline churches are becoming more and more godless by the day.
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