Corinna Cohn's Testimony

Notes for the party that asserts "science is real."

When I interviewed Corinna Cohn for my Heterodox Trans People series last year, we didn’t have time to talk about her advocacy work on behalf of those who medically transition. Much of Corinna’s focus has been on shifting the burden from patient to practitioner; the informed consent model, and statute of limitations on when patients can sue, means those who’ve been hurt by poor practices have little recourse. Despite my feeling that bans on medical gender transition for minors are not the best way to get to a cease fire the culture war, I was moved by Corinna’s testimony in support of Indiana’s SB480. I sincerely hope that her appeal to Democrats, to follow the science and to listen to those who’ve been hurt, will not fall on deaf Democrat ears.

-LD

My name is Corinna Cohn. I'm here today in support of SB 480. I am a resident in Senator Andrea Hunley's district. I moved to Indiana when I was 19 years old in 1994. In the winter of 1994, I had sex reassignment surgery in Neenah, Wisconsin. I was the second-youngest patient operated on by my surgeon. I was too young to know myself, although at the time, I thought I did.

I'm arguably the first person to start transition because of the influence of the Internet. Today, there are tens and thousands of boys and girls who receive all the validation they could want assuring them (and sometimes their parents) that the best thing they could do to become whole and happy people is to take steps towards surgically removing their sexual organs.

I'd like to tell you that I've lived as a woman for the last thirty years, but that would be a lie. I sought to change my sex, and it took me more than a decade to arrive at the understanding that I was trying to do the impossible. I did not live as a woman, but as a man doing my best to blend in to the world as a woman. My heart breaks for the young people who are being lied to by well-meaning enablers, as they will need to learn the same painful lesson that I learned.

Three years ago, I founded a non-profit called the Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network. I've spoken with patients and clinicians, and it's abundantly clear that there are numerous gaps in the care provided to young people who identify as transgender. You can count on groups like the ACLU to show up to protect the doctors who have no accountability to these children, but who will speak up for the young patients?

Which party traditionally cares about the rights of the marginalized? Which party has members who post signs in their yards that read "in this house we believe science is real?" Which party has held itself at arm's length from concerns raised by a growing number of clinicians regarding the reckless trends in adolescent gender care? It is time for Democrats to step away from the shouting and misguided mob and come to sit at the table with patients, policymakers, and clinicians who are trying to find reasonable solutions to a growing medical nightmare.

In the past year I have spoken with policymakers in Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, and other states about the need to regulate the practice of adolescent gender transition. A year ago, I was urging them to focus on expanding the burden of liability on gender clinicians. But late last year, the World Professional Association of Transgender Health released new guidelines that were designed, in their own words, to absolve clinicians of any legal responsibility regardless of patient outcomes.

We Hoosiers should follow the lead of Finland, Sweden, and England in putting the brakes on transgender medicalization of youth. You will hear other people today say that the care is evidence-based, but the body of evidence is weak and contradictory. You will hear them say that it is science-based, and has been the accepted standard for decades. This is a fabrication.

Senators, if you are able to get past the smokescreen put up by the ACLU and the claims by a handful of self-serving clinicians, you'll learn that there is no evidence to support the current practice of transgender medicine on children. It's happening here in Indiana, and it needs to stop.

Thank you.