by Arin Waller

In mid-November, an LED box truck was spotted outside Children’s Minnesota, a prominent pediatric hospital in Minneapolis, displaying a transphobic message targeting the hospital’s Gender Health Program. This non-profit facility is well known for its comprehensive healthcare services for children, including gender-affirming care. The message on the truck claimed that at least 54 children had 

been “harmed” by what it called “sex change interventions.” This incident underscores the increasing challenges faced by healthcare providers offering these essential services amidst a tide of misinformation and hostility. 

The group responsible for the transphobic message is The American Parents Coalition, a Parent rights organization founded in March of 2024 by Allison Leigh Marré. Marré previously served as a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services during the Trump-Pence administration. The Organization asserts that modern political dynamics, such as LGBT representation in children’s media, threaten their rights as parents. 

The attacks go beyond this single hospital. The website for this group’s campaign, titled Stop The Docs, lists Children’s Minnesota and 3 other children’s hospitals in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, And Washington D.C. as the worst offenders in offering “irreversible sex change interventions on kids”. They list statistics for all four clinics, detailing the number of patients, prescriptions for puberty blockers, and submitted charges which is assumedly the initial payment amount a healthcare provider submits to an insurance company. The figures are pulled from StopTheHarm, a medical database created by the anti-trans organization Do No Harm. Critics often tout the Database as misrepresenting data to purport a biased narrative. It’s odd that a medical database, keeping tabs on surgeries, wouldn’t list the exact procedures being performed, as many of these surgeries have purposes outside of gender reassignment. For instance, a study conducted by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found a majority of these procedures were breast reductions, a procedure that’s most commonly performed to alleviate back problems. 

Regardless of studies finding links between hormone blockers and improved quality of life for transgender teens, these groups continue to condemn their use. An advocacy group might be expected to explain their objection to certain practices, especially when backed findings contradict these notions. Still, it appears that most of these far-right groups tend to throw around buzzwords instead of providing any factual evidence for their claims. The APC is no different with a quick summary of their about section suggesting because an absurdly biased database reports questionable data we need to stop these “harmful gender interventions on children”. 

Despite no argument on why these interventions are harmful, The APC urges people to write to their local representatives and any hospitals in their area if it is listed in the Stop The Harm database, using a sample letter they have provided. 

The APC uses its stance as a group of parents to push anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs. Transforming Families, a peer-led group for families in support of their trans/gender non-conforming children in Minnesota, provides their input. Assigned Media met with Hannah Edwards, the Executive Director of Transforming Families, to ask a few questions.

When asked how she and her husband recognized their daughter might be transgender, Edwards explained: 

“As soon as she could start expressing herself… she likes sort of stereotypical girl things even though she was assigned male at birth… she would say things like, in my heart, I am a girl… We would say things like boys could have long hair… boys can have ear piercings or wear pink or any number of things, and finally, she was like, but I’m not a boy.” 

Reflecting on the impact of their child being transgender on their parenting style, Edwards remarked: 

“I feel like I always thought of myself as a very open person and parent… I have always wanted to be someone who didn’t shape my child into who I thought they should be but more so let them come through me and help guide them to who they truly are. And make healthy safe decisions about their lives and their future I think what it has done though was solidified that for me” 

Campaigns like this often incite violence, with some hospitals receiving bomb threats. When asked if any of the families she works with have felt threatened by the truck’s presence Edwards had this to say. 

“I don’t know specifically if any of our families have seen them or not, I do know we have talked about them in meetings, and being aware of them… just knowing that that truck was driving around the main clinic that our families use was hurtful in and of itself. It’s already scary to be supporting your child in this day and age. We’ve got people who are calling us, as parents, groomers or pedophiles.  And so to have a truck meant just to intimidate feels pretty icky and that it also makes me personally upset. I think that our children, our trans children our non-binary gender expansive children, are super brave when they shouldn’t have to be, and so to be going to do something that is taking care of yourself and making healthy choices for yourself is already brave enough, and to have to come across that, it makes me as a parent kind of angry that you would do that to my kid” 

Parents of trans children often face criticism by anti-trans groups. It is only fair for Edwards to provide her criticism toward the parenting choices of potential APC members. 

“I hope that their kids aren’t trans… because likely they would not be healthy and happy like the kids who are affirmed and supported are. I wish that instead of worrying about my parenting choices, they could reflect and look at their own parenting decisions and choices and work on their relationship with their children. So that their children are able to build healthier relationships with them. Because my relationship with my child is so healthy.”

It’s no coincidence that this campaign rolled out mere weeks before *The U.S. Vs. Skrmetti*. We are seeing so much transphobic propaganda that one may be reminded of a line from The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats, that reads “The best lack all conviction while the worse are full of passionate intensity”. Now, more than ever, it is crucial to amplify the voices of those who are bravelystanding against these injustices. We must remember that these opposing forces can only succeed if weallow them to drown us out.