PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 26, 2023

CONTACT: [email protected]

Target: Stop “Targeting” Our Kids
State and National Groups Unite in Call for Target to Remove/Move Divisive “Trans Pride” Products
Group Sending Letter and Petition to Chip and Joanna Gaines
Seeking Support to Protect Childhood Innocence

URGENT ALERT!

WE NEED YOU IN COMMITTEE TOMORROW TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!  The bill that will stop unproven surgeries and hormonal treatment on minors under age 18 will be heard in committee on Tuesday, January 24th, at 2:00pm in the House Building, Room 30, in the House Health and Human services committee. HB 132, sponsored by representative Rex Shipp, will end experimental medical procedures that hurt and sterilize children. 
 
Medical doctors and mental health experts will be in the meeting to testify about the dangers of these procedures and why Utah must pass this bill to Protect our children. De-transitioner Chloe Cole will share her story about her journey through puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and a double mastectomy at age 15. 
 
We need you to be there please come and support this legislation. Let the committee members know that you expect them to protect Utah’s children by passing HB132. Please email, text and call all the Republican members of the committee and ask them to vote yes to protecting Utah’s children.
 
This bill prohibits a health care provider from performing a medical procedure on a minor for the purpose of attempted sex transitioning or attempted sex change. HB 132 PROHIBITS: 

• Hormonal transgender procedures on minors, which means cross-sex hormones, giving testosterone to biological girls who are trying to appear as boys and giving estrogen to biological boys who are trying to appear as girls 
• Performing a puberty inhibition procedure (puberty blocker) on minors. "Minor" means an individual who is less than 18 years old. 
•  "Sex characteristic-altering surgical procedure" for the purpose of effectuating or facilitating an individual's attempted sex change.  
• Any surgical procedure that is related to or necessary for a procedure that would result in the sterilization of a minor who is non-sterile; or removing any otherwise healthy or non-diseased body part or tissue.

Please email, text and call all the Republican members of the committee and ask them to VOTE YES to protecting Utah’s children:Rep. Stewart E. Barlow
[email protected]
801-289-6699

Rep. Stephanie Gricius
[email protected]
801-901-8251

Rep. Marsha Judkins
[email protected]
801-669-6962

Rep. Anthony Loubet
[email protected]
801-657-0466

Rep. Quinn Kotter
[email protected]
385-202-6683

Rep. Robert M. Spendlove
[email protected]
801-560-5394

Rep. Steve Eliason
[email protected]
801-673-4748

Rep. Tim Jimenez
[email protected]
801-560-8061

Rep. Raymond P. Ward
[email protected]
801-440-8765

On Tuesday, March 31, Equality Utah sent an email that included the following misinformation:

“Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility. And being visible literally saves lives. This year, a wave of anti-transgender bills swept across the country. Sadly, the Idaho governor just signed two anti-transgender bills into law. 
​
Here in Utah, the Eagle Forum worked aggressively to push legislation to criminalize transition related healthcare for transgender children. They recruited Representative Brad Daw to carry out their harmful legislation. Thankfully, when Rep. Daw met with transgender children and their parents and doctors, he just couldn’t do it. He listened with an open heart and refused to advance the Eagle Forum’s cruel medical ban.

We are grateful to the courageous advocates who are working to change hearts and minds on Capitol Hill.”
​
Equality Utah referred to “healthcare for transgender children.”  It is incomprehensible to call experimental medical procedures, that hurt and permanently damage children, “healthcare.” These are unproven treatments that use children as guinea pigs.

It is important to know that many organizations including Empowered Families, a coalition of 30 pro-family organizations, along with the Berean Baptist Church and The Compassion Coalition, and Utah Eagle Forum all joined together on this critically important legislation, and worked very hard during the Legislative session to protect children dealing with gender dysphoria (discomfort with one’s biological sex).

These experimental treatments are currently legal in Utah and are seriously harming our children, including:

• Puberty blockers:  Children as young as 9 years old, are taken to adolescent transgender clinics where they are given unproven drugs, usually Lupron, to block puberty.

1. There is not a single long-term study to demonstrate that puberty blockers are safe for gender incongruent youth. This means that the claim that puberty blockers are harmless for gender incongruent youth is a lie.
2. There are also many harmful life-long side effects associated with the use of Lupron. These include premature osteoporosis, seizures, anxiety disorders in young women, obesity and testicular cancer in young men, memory problems in men and women, and when prescribed simultaneously with or followed by cross-sex hormones, permanent sterility in both sexes. The fact that the long-term permanent harm caused by these procedures have not been ruled out by the promoters of treatments means that informed consent is not possible for parents or their children.
3. Puberty blockers used on young boys have been reported to cause the development of their genitalia to be arrested.  By their late teens, it was found that their genitalia were equivalent to that of a 9 year-old boy and that they experienced a loss of sexual sensation. This is a permanent condition. 

​

• Cross-sex hormones: Trans-identified youth next take dangerous cross-sex hormones to try to present as the opposite sex. Young girls are given testosterone and young boys are given estrogen.​​ 

1. This puts youth at an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots, cancer and more across their lifespan. And the best long-term evidence we have among adults shows medical intervention fails to reduce suicide.
2. Most gender-distressed teens are girls and boys who are anxious, depressed, traumatized, struggling with ADHD, autism or other mental illnesses, and are uncomfortable with their bodies and struggling with their identity. Several case reports and series show that the vast majority of teens can embrace their bodies through psychological counseling alone.

 

• Surgery: Top and bottom surgeries are being given to adolescents to change their sexual body parts. Girls as young as 12 years old are being subjected to mastectomies. These surgeries can and often do render children permanently sterile.

Many parents in Utah are taking their children to transgender clinics seeking hormone therapy and surgery for their children to change their sex. This is troublesome because sex cannot be changed. Even with extensive hormonal or cosmetic treatment, affecting the outward appearance of individuals, XX and XY chromosomes will always be XX and XY chromosomes.

​Doctors at Utah clinics, including a clinic at the University of Utah, are administering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and even body-changing surgeries to children. ​

What are these “gender affirming” therapies and what damage are they inflicting on children?
 
Puberty Blockers: Powerful drugs that will prevent children from experiencing puberty. According to the American College of Pediatricians some of the effects of these body altering drugs include:

• Preventing the development of secondary sex characteristics;
• Arresting and decreasing bone growth;
• Preventing the sex-steroid dependent organization and maturation of the adolescent brain; and
• Inhibiting fertility. 

Cross-sex Hormones: Giving young girls testosterone who want to become boys and giving young boys estrogen who want to become girls. What are some the side effects of these drugs?

• Testosterone for girls: their body will redistribute weight, eyes and face will develop a more angular male appearance, a male-sounding voice, facial hair, it will greatly reduce their ability to become pregnant.
• Estrogen for boys: breast development, redistributes their weight, eyes and face develop a more female appearance, body hair will decrease in thickness, they will become permanently and irreversibly sterile. (University of California, San Francisco)
• These drugs can cause heart disease, blood clots, high blood pressure, strokes, etc.

Surgery: Hysterectomy, mastectomy, testicle removal and surgeries that attempt to create male genitalia on females and female genitalia on males which can be non-functional or with limited functionality at best. None of these surgeries are reversible in the sense of regaining full functionality or appearance if these children, or the adults they become, ever change their minds.
 
The doctors are using the children as guinea pigs with untested and unproven drugs. As a result, their bodies are mutilated, and children become sterilized. This terrible practice must be stopped. Right now there are over a HUNDRED children at the GEMS Clinic at the University of Utah receiving these hormone treatments with more children starting the treatment on a regular basis. That means there will be hundreds of sterile and mutilated children by the end of this year.

Representative Brad Daw is the sponsor of “Prohibition on Transgender Procedures Upon Minors” and Senator Curt Bramble is the Senate sponsor. This bill would make all of these procedures illegal for children under 18. Powerful people, who are not thinking of the best interest of Utah’s children, are blocking this bill from passing.  As we have seen many times before, Utahns can be even more powerful than the politicians when they come together and stand for what is right. 
 
We need your help to get this bill to committee and on its way to become the law that will save these children.

This is not a parental rights issue. Parents hold the legal right to care for their children and provide them the healthcare they need but they have never been able to allow their children to be used as guinea pigs. There is never a reason to sterilize or cosmetically alter children, which as a result destroys their God-given right to choose to have children in the future. According to long term studies in Sweden, individuals who have received chemical and surgical gender-affirming operations are 19 times more likely to commit suicide.

The number of children who change their mind is EXTREMELY HIGH. According to the DSM-5 manual, up to 88% of the girls who identify during childhood as boys and up to 97.8%  of the boys who identify as girls change their mind if they do not receive puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or surgery.  

Please email all the Utah State Representatives and Senators. Call or email the Governor.  Ask them to tell their leadership that they want the opportunity to vote on this bill to save the children.

Senate Roster         House Roster

Please come to the Capitol with us this week to speak with your legislators. It makes a big difference when they know you are there and have a personal interest in the well-being of Utah children.
 For more information please call Maryann Christensen: 801-860-5419

• If you come to the Capitol by car, you will find visitor parking behind the Capitol on the EAST SIDE.  There is a lot right next to the Senate Building that fills up very early, another lot directly north, or parking on the street along the east and north sides of the Capitol Complex.
• If you come to the Capitol by public transportation, take Front Runner or Trax to the NORTH TEMPLE STATION and catch the 200 BUS to the Capitol.  It arrives at the Station every 15 minutes. YOU CAN ALSO PARK YOUR CAR AT THE NORTH TEMPLE STATION (500 W 200 N) and catch the bus!
• You will meet up with us at the south end of the Cafeteria in the Senate Building, which is behind the Capitol on the East.  When you come in from the parking lot, look to the far wall to your left!
• Carola (our volunteer coordinator) or Gabriella (our Intern Director) will greet you when you arrive.

From Gayle Ruzicka, President of Utah Eagle Forum:

I recently checked the website for the Utah Board of Education looking for up-dated information on Health education. I was shocked to find some very disturbing information. For years Utah law has allowed for spontaneous questions in sex education classes. I have always been concerned about this and I use to keep an eye on what was happening, but like all of us, I got busier and busier and quit checking. That was a mistake. Below is an email I sent to the State School Board members and Superintendent Dickson. I also sent a similar letter to several legislators and I hand delivered a packet of information to the Governor and the AG.

Now I think we all need to get involved and let the the Board know that there has to be changes and children need to be protected. You also need to contact your legislators 'they need to change the law and remove the language allowing spontaneous questions. Thursday, September 5, is the monthly State School Board meeting. We need to show up to testify and ask that they shut down the spontaneous questions and they also need to stop any programs that create secrecy in the classroom. Said here, stays here, should never be said in a public school classroom.

​The school board meeting is at 9:00 am Thursday morning. The address is 250 E 500 S Salt Lake City.
https://usbe.civicclerk.com/web/Home.aspx

If you want to speak send an email or call: Lorraine Austin
Board Secretary
Utah State Board of Education
PO Box 144200
Salt Lake City, UT 84114
801-538-7517
[email protected]

​Please bring a copy of your written testimony to leave with the board members. Even if you don't speak bring a statement for the Board members. it can be just one paragraph or 4 or 5 paragraphs. All they really need to know is you are concerned and you want changes. Alway include your name and contact information. Bring your friends with you.

If you can't make it to the meeting please send all of the Board members an email with your concerns. https://www.schools.utah.gov/board/utah/members. Click on each board member's name to get their contact information. Also contact your own legislator, House and Senate. It would be a good idea to send them emails even if you are at the Board meeting.

This is the email I sent to the State School Members with a copy to the Superintendent. It explains all of my concerns. Hopefully they are your concerns too.


Dear (School Board member's name)

As you know, Utah law allows teachers to answer spontaneous questions during sex education classes. I recently checked on the State Office of Education website under teacher’s resources to see what information was there for teachers about answering classroom questions. What I found was shocking. https://www.schools.utah.gov/file/03e62195-10a8-47af-810a-7234c7153008 I could not believe that teachers were having these very graphic discussions with Utah children. Parents would be shocked, and most would be angry. The worst part is that by the time the parents fine out, if they ever do, the children will already be damaged. As a member of the Utah State Board of Education it is your responsibility to protect Utah's students from exposure to this damaging information.

I was told that approximately 90% of the parents are allowing their children to participate in sex education classes because they think Utah teachers teach an abstinence-based curriculum. These allowed questions and the answers are as graphic as any Comprehensive Sex Education taught in the schools in California. Every parent should be given a copy of these questions along with the answers before they are asked to grant permission for their child to participate in sex education classes.

The guidelines say a teacher cannot answer a technique or “how to” question, yet in many cases by simply defining the individual sexual practice they are describing the "technique." Out of 29 questions under the heading of sex, only 4 times did the teacher say they could not answer that question, and yet most of the question are inappropriate. One of those 4 questions was, "How do you put on a condom?" The teacher said, "I am not permitted to answer. Please refer to the package instructions."

I assume that most of you have not read these questions and answers or you would be doing something about it. I find it embarrassing to have to send this email to you, but I do not know any other way to get this stopped because the children, as young as 13, could be discussing this in the classrooms. Who was responsible for compiling these questions and answers and putting them under the teacher's resources? The legislature should change this law. These spontaneous and inappropriate questions should not be allowed in the classroom. Children with questions should be encouraged to talk to their parents or, with parental permission, talk to the school nurse where the entire class will not be exposed to the individual student’s question.

One other concern. Many parents would not want their children to be taught about any of these alternative sexual practices, let alone that they are normal and acceptable.

There is another document under the teacher's resources that may explain why parents are not aware of these discussions in the classroom. This document is called "Ground Rules. Group Agreement/ Guidelines/ ROPES Activity. The first paragraph of this agreement states, "It is important when discussing topics surrounding sexual health to try and create an environment where everyone feels like they can voice their thoughts in a safe manner. These “ground rules” often take various forms, but the framework remains consistent."

This is the explanation for ROPES:
R: Respect, responsibility, keep it “real”, reporting
O: Open mind, opportunity, “Oops/Ouch”
P: Participating (with the right to “pass), personal questions, prepared
E: Empathy, education, excited, “escuchar” (Spanish for listen), ELMO
S: Said here, stays here (confidentially, unless…), safe space, self-aware, share, sense of humor

As you can see, S: says, "Said here, stays here." Children are agreeing to not share what they are talking about during this Q&A sharing time. They are having to choose between keeping the commitment they have made to their teacher and classmates to keep the conversation private versus talking to their own parents. Never should there be a pact made about keeping classroom secrets. There should never be classroom secrets.

https://www.schools.utah.gov/file/d66aa7d3-cb1f-4f47-a576-aaa4b8a351fc

Please do something to fix this very serious problem.

Thank you,


Gayle Ruzicka, President. Utah Eagle Forum


(e)
(i)
At no time may instruction be provided, including responses to spontaneous questions raised by students, regarding any means or methods that facilitate or encourage the violation of any state or federal criminal law by a minor or an adult.

(ii)
Subsection (2)(e)(i) does not preclude an instructor from responding to a spontaneous question as long as the response is consistent with the provisions of this section