It’s no secret that Massachusetts has been at the forefront of promoting radical gender ideology in our nation. Boston Children’s Hospital made headlines last summer when the popular “Libs of TikTok” Twitter account exposed that the hospital performed “gender affirming” surgeries like hysterectomies and mastectomies on minors. Around the same time, the Massachusetts legislature passed a law to make our state a sanctuary for “gender transitions.” And public schools in Massachusetts continue to relentlessly push trans propaganda on young and impressionable students, even going so far as to secretly socially transition children behind their parents’ backs.
It should not be surprising, then, that Massachusetts has spent millions of dollars in taxpayer money on funding these dangerous procedures for minors. Inspired by similar reporting from our sister organization in the Keystone state, the Pennsylvania Family Institute, MFI submitted a public records request to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services. We asked how much money Massachusetts has spent on funding treatment or medication related to sex reassignment or gender transition on children aged 17 and younger since 2012. The answer? Over $7.6 million.
Some additional context makes that number even more disturbing than it seems on its face. First, this amount only represents money spent through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Only about 1/3 of Massachusetts children use these programs, which are designed to serve low-income families. That means that more affluent kids who receive “gender transition” procedures would not be represented by this number. The true amount of money spent on such procedures in Massachusetts is therefore likely many times higher. “Gender-affirming care” is becoming an increasingly lucrative industry, and healthcare providers like Boston Children’s Hospital are all too eager to capitalize on it.
Second, the amount of taxpayer money that Massachusetts has spent on “gender-affirming care” for children has steadily increased since 2012, from just $334 that year to $2,045,630 in 2022. That is an increase of over 600,000% in just ten years. There are no signs that this trend is going to slow any time soon.
Let’s call this what it is: evil. It is evil to feed children the lie that they can be “born in the wrong body;” it is evil to tell a teenage girl that she will feel better if she just starts a course of testosterone and gets a surgeon to cut off her breasts; and it is evil to use taxpayer dollars to mutilate the bodies of children.
So, is there any hope that we can reverse course? At MFI, we believe there is. We are inspired by the stories of “detransitioners,” young men and women like Chloe Cole and Helena Kerschner who attempted to “transition” to the opposite gender as children but then realized their mistake and embraced their biological sex. We are encouraged that radical gender ideology seems to be losing steam in Europe, where some national health agencies are shuttering gender clinics and abandoning the “gender-affirming care” model for children. And most of all, we have hope in Christ, the source of Truth and creator of male and female, who continues to build His church in the midst of all of our cultural chaos.
MFI will always stand against radical gender ideology and for the Biblical vision of sex and sexuality, no matter how much taxpayer money is spent to promote gender confusion. We know we will ultimately be on the winning side. Would you join us?
For our families,
Andrew Beckwith, President & General Counsel
