Michigan children are not a science experiment.
Puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for minors were sold to parents as settled science. The world's most careful reviews found that the mental health evidence behind them is very weak. Michigan Democrats kept pushing anyway.
“Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge…” Victor Frankenstein, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)
Shelley’s warning was never about the creature. It was about a man so sure of his own brilliance that he ran an experiment he didn’t understand, and then didn’t stay to see what it did. Two hundred years later, the experiment is being run on children.
“Experiment” is not our word. It is the word Europe’s own health authorities reached for once they finally looked at the evidence.
Over the last decade, a growing number of children and teenagers were referred to gender clinics. Many were put on a medical pathway that can begin before puberty and end with permanent changes to their bodies. Many parents were told this was the safe, proven course.
Then England commissioned an independent review led by Dr. Hilary Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. In April 2024, after four years of work and a series of systematic reviews by the University of York, her final report concluded that the medical pathway rests on weak evidence.1 England stopped prescribing puberty blockers to minors outside of research.2
Drugs that halt a child’s natural puberty. The Cass Review found nearly every child who started them went on to cross-sex hormones, and the York review found evidence of compromised bone health during treatment.2
Testosterone or estrogen to produce the opposite sex’s characteristics. Cass recommended against starting them before 16 and called for a “clear clinical rationale” before 18.2
The promise was better mental health. Here is what the researchers actually wrote down.
These kids are real, and their pain is real. Many are living with depression, anxiety or autism. That is exactly why they deserve treatment that is proven to help.
This is an area of remarkably weak evidence.
The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.
Dr. Hilary Cass, Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People, final report, April 2024.1
It has been suggested that hormone treatment reduces the elevated risk of death by suicide in this population, but the evidence found did not support this conclusion.
It is the most frightening argument a parent can hear. The review found the evidence did not support it.
Cass Review final report, April 2024.1
The evidence for benefit of pediatric medical transition is very uncertain.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ peer-reviewed report rated the overall quality of evidence on psychological outcomes “very low” and found “no evidence that pediatric medical transition reduces the incidence of suicide.”
HHS, Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices, final report, Nov. 19, 2025.3
Clinical gender dysphoria does not appear to be predictive of all-cause nor suicide mortality…
Once the researchers accounted for psychiatric treatment history, the difference in suicide deaths largely disappeared. Mental illness was the strongest predictor, and gender reassignment had no clear impact on suicide risk.
Ruuska, Tuisku, Holttinen & Kaltiala, BMJ Mental Health, 2024.5
Many of these children and adolescents have co-occurring psychiatric or neurodevelopmental conditions.
HHS found suicidal thoughts and behavior are “independently associated” with those conditions, and “no independent association between gender dysphoria and suicidality has been found.”
HHS final report, Nov. 2025.3
Cass warned of “diagnostic overshadowing.” Once a child’s distress is seen only through the lens of gender, depression, anxiety and autism get overlooked. She recommended a full mental health assessment and autism screening for every child, and standard treatment for anxiety and depression.
Cass Review final report, April 2024.2
HHS called psychotherapy a “noninvasive alternative” and reported that systematic reviews “have found no evidence of adverse effects of psychotherapy in this context.”3 Finland made psychotherapy the first-line treatment back in 2020.6 In Michigan, Democrats went the other way and put therapists’ licenses on the line. The record below has the details.
Country by country, court by court, hospital by hospital, the experiment started shutting down.
Finnish health authorities prioritized psychotherapy over puberty blockers and hormones, limited medical treatment to rare cases, and banned surgical sex changes for minors.6
Norway’s independent Healthcare Investigation Board recommended that puberty blockers, hormones and surgery for young people be classified as “experimental” treatment.6
NHS England stopped prescribing puberty blockers to minors outside clinical research, citing “insufficient evidence of safety or clinical effectiveness.” The Cass Review followed in April. In December, the UK made the restriction indefinite.2
In United States v. Skrmetti, the Court voted 6–3 to uphold Tennessee’s law protecting minors from these procedures, noting the “fierce scientific and policy debates” and leaving the question “to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process.”8
The University of Michigan’s health system announced it would “no longer provide gender affirming hormonal therapies and puberty blocker medications for minors,” after receiving a federal subpoena.12
Michigan’s largest health system, with 21 hospitals, ended puberty blockers and hormones for minors, citing legal and regulatory risk, while continuing mental health support.13
The federal government released its peer-reviewed review of the evidence, finding the benefit “very uncertain.”3
The House passed House Bill 4467, the Protecting Minors from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation Act, 57–48. It went to the Democrat-led Senate.15
While the rest of the world was stopping the experiment, Democrats kept the lab running. These are their own words and votes.
A draft of the leading gender-medicine guidelines set minimum ages: 14 for hormones, 15 for mastectomies, 16 for some other surgeries and 17 for genital surgeries. Emails released in a 2024 federal court case show the office of Biden Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine pushed the World Professional Association for Transgender Health to drop them. The final guidelines had no age minimums.9
Levine was concerned the age minimums would “result in devastating legislation for trans care.”
Democratic Reps. Felicia Brabec and Jason Hoskins of Southfield sponsored House Bills 4616 and 4617, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed them in July 2023. The law banned “any intervention that attempts to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity” for minors and threatened licensed therapists with discipline that could cost them their licenses. Every House Republican voted no.10,11
Critics warned it would leave counselors afraid to help a child work through distress before reaching for medicine.
A federal appeals court blocked the law in December 2025. On March 31, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8–1 in Chiles v. Salazar that Colorado’s similar ban regulates speech based on viewpoint and must face strict scrutiny.11,18 Whitmer and Nessel called the ruling “disappointing.”14 In July, they agreed to settle with the Christian counselors who sued, and a federal judge permanently barred the state from punishing them for talk therapy.16
“Michigan will never support any practice that harms or shames LGBTQ+ youth.”
In August 2025, when Michigan Medicine stopped puberty blockers and hormones for minors, Michigan’s Democratic attorney general didn’t ask about the evidence. She called the decision “shameful, dangerous, and potentially illegal” and said her department would be “considering all of our options.”12 When Corewell Health followed, she called it “deeply disappointing” and urged hospitals to join her in “fighting back.”13
At a November 2025 House Oversight hearing on youth gender medicine, Rep. Sharon MacDonnell (D-Troy) defended the treatments, saying regret or complications affect 1% to 2% of patients.17 The federal review found the harms of these treatments are “too often ignored or inadequately tracked.”4 You can’t count what nobody follows up on.
When the House passed HB 4467 in June 2026, Rep. Matt Longjohn (D-Portage) spoke against it on the floor.19 On June 10, the Democrat-led Senate sent it to the Committee on Government Operations. It has had no Senate action since.15
“These bills replace evidence-based medical practice with political judgment.”
The evidence-based reviews are in the lab notes above. Read them and decide who is practicing politics.
Victor Frankenstein’s great failure was walking away from what he started. Michigan doesn’t have to repeat it.
Treat the depression, anxiety and trauma that so many of these kids carry, with therapies that have no evidence of harm.
Follow the Cass recommendation: a full mental health assessment and autism screening before anything else.
Under Michigan’s 2016 school guidance, telling parents is decided “case-by-case.” A Rockford family says their school used a new name and pronouns for their child for over a year without telling them.20 Parents should never be the last to know.
Pass HB 4467 so Michigan joins the countries and states that have stopped the experiment.15
Let licensed therapists help a child explore what they are feeling without fear of losing their license.
Require real long-term follow-up, so no one can wave away harm as “1% to 2%” again.
The Michigan Education Association, the teachers union, recommended these school board candidates.21 Flip your ballot over and vote in your school board race. Vote against the MEA’s picks, and for the candidates endorsed by the Oakland County Republican Party.
Vote for a cure for the insanity.
Vote for a cure for the insanity.
Vote for a cure for the insanity.
Vote for a cure for the insanity.
Vote for a cure for the insanity.
Vote for a cure for the insanity.
Vote for a cure for the insanity.
Vote for a cure for the insanity.
Vote for a cure for the insanity.
Vote for a cure for the insanity.
Vote for a cure for the insanity.
MEA-recommended school board candidates as of Oct. 16, 2026, in each district where the Oakland County Republican Party has endorsed. Lamphere and Southfield have no MEA pick.21
Want to help protect kids in your community? Get involved with the Oakland County GOP.