By Greg Burt, Vice President of the California Family Council

When Kaiser Permanente announced its decision to pause all “gender-affirming” surgeries on minors last week, I held my breath, hoping that California’s media might finally take the opportunity to tell the public what a teen trans surgery is. I hoped they’d finally give voice to the victims, detransitioners like Chloe Cole, Layla Jane, and Luka Hein, whose lives have been permanently scarred by the very procedures Kaiser is now putting on hold.

But out of 18 stories from California main-stream news outlets covering Kaiser’s policy change, only one interviewed a detransitioner. One.

Only CBS Bay Area’s Andrea Nakano took the courageous and journalistically responsible step of showing both sides of the debate. At a protest in front of a San Francisco Kaiser hospital, she aired the story of Layla Jane, who had her healthy breasts removed at age 13, at that very same Kaiser facility.

Layla stood feet away from a transgender Kaiser nurse protesting the pause. Nakano gave both of them a voice. That’s journalism. That’s truth-seeking. Sadly, it was the exception, not the rule.

The rest of California’s media? Silence and censorship.

Of the 18 stories reviewed:

• Only four mentioned that “gender-affirming surgery” often means double mastectomies on teenage girls.
• None investigated how many minors had these surgeries, despite Kaiser vaguely calling them “rare.”
• Only one mentioned Chloe Cole’s malpractice lawsuit against Kaiser, even though Chloe is arguably the most well-known detransitioner in the nation, and Kaiser is the defendant. No one mentioned Layla Jane’s lawsuit against Kaiser.
• Not a single story explored why 20+ U.S. states have now banned these surgeries for minors, or why Sweden, the UK, and Finland have reversed course and are now severely restricting them for youth.

Instead, the overwhelming narrative was this:

Kaiser is under political pressure from the Trump administration. Transgender youth are being denied “life-saving care.” And anyone who disagrees is probably motivated by religious bigotry or animus. Some of that tone can be heard in an interview by CBS News reporter Steve Large out of Sacramento. I know because I was his on-camera interview.

I gave Steve detailed information about Chloe Cole and Layla Jane. I shared video footage of their Capitol testimony. I explained how Chloe’s lawsuit accused Kaiser of pressuring her parents with false suicide warnings to approve surgery when she was just 15 years old. I laid out our position, not just our Christian beliefs, but our moral and medical objections to giving sterilizing drugs and mutilating surgeries to children struggling with gender confusion.

None of it made the final cut.

Instead, Steve chose to focus on the supposed theological motivations of California Family Council. The fact that we oppose telling kids they’re “born in the wrong body”? That we think cutting off the healthy breasts of 13-year-old girls is a tragedy, not a treatment? That this is a medical scandal, not a political issue?

Ignored.

His story, like so many others, was dominated by activists and so-called experts lamenting the loss of “life-saving gender care.” Not one mention of what those surgeries actually are, why they are controversial, or how many European countries have reversed course out of concern for the growing number of regretful detransitioners.

Why is this happening?

Because many in the media have adopted an ideological commitment to protect “trans identity” at all costs, even if it means silencing those who have been harmed by it.

It is my suspicion many reporter have been convinced that giving a platform to detransitioners like Chloe Cole and Layla Jane causes “emotional harm” to trans identified people. That airing dissent “spreads hate.” So instead of reporting, they suppress. Instead of asking questions, they protect the narrative.

But this isn’t journalism. It’s activism dressed up in a press pass.

Let’s be clear: What’s being hidden from the public is one of the largest medical scandals of our time.

• Teenage girls are having their healthy breasts cut off to cope with internal distress. In rarer occasions “lower-genital procedures” are done including: Vaginoplasty: Constructs a neovagina using the penile and scrotal tissue. Orchiectomy: Surgical removal of the testicles, often performed prior to or instead of vaginoplasty. Labiaplasty: Additional procedure to refine the external appearance of the labia.
• Minors are being put on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones that sterilize, weaken bone density, and stunt brain development.
• Parents are told that if they don’t go along, their child will die by suicide, a claim not backed by long-term evidence.
  
• And anyone who speaks up, especially those who’ve lived through it and now regret it, is shoved off camera, their stories erased or ignored.

This is not compassion. This is a cover-up.

As a representative of California Family Council, I want to make our stance crystal clear: We will not be silent on this issue. We will continue to amplify the voices the media tries to mute. Voices like Chloe’s and Layla’s. Voices of truth, even when uncomfortable. Especially when uncomfortable.

And we ask journalists across California: Do your job. Ask the hard questions. Investigate both sides. And for heaven’s sake—stop pretending these kids don’t exist just because their stories contradict your worldview.

The public deserves better. And the victims deserve to be heard.

Read the 18 stories referenced above…

About California Family Council

California Family Council works to advance God’s design for life, family, and liberty through California’s Church, Capitol, and Culture. By advocating for policies that reinforce the sanctity of life, the strength of traditional marriages, and the essential freedoms of religion, CFC is dedicated to preserving California’s moral and social foundation.