This is Part 3 of a multi-part investigative series.
Part 1 investigated the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL)'s taxpayer-funded program pumping out "transgender"-identifying kids by the dozen. Part 2 exposed SMYAL's partnership with the gender clinic at Children's National Hospital, offering an unfiltered glimpse behind the curtain of childhood "gender transitioning." This third and final installment of Townhall's investigation encapsulates how this is not an isolated incident; it's a microcosm of LGBTQ indoctrination efforts happening elsewhere across America.
A federally funded research project is actively recruiting "transgender" children to study the "mental health benefits" of puberty blockers, as part of a nationwide push to reshape public policy on pediatric "gender care."
Three major U.S. children's hospitals, which all house gender clinics, are co-conducting this clinical study: Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio; Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois; and Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Since 2021, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), an agency of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has pumped over $3 million into the multi-site, longitudinal study, which was recently renewed for the 2024 fiscal year, per a repository of NIH-funded portfolios reviewed by Townhall.
According to the project's abstract, it will examine the effects of pubertal suppression medication (a.k.a. puberty blockers) on the mental health of "transgender" adolescents over time. Of the 132 subjects (ages eight to 12) being studied, half will be placed or are already on puberty blockers, and the remainder will be the control group not undergoing pubertal suppression.
Colloquially called the "Trans Development Study" (officially titled "The Impact of Pubertal Suppression on Adolescent Neural and Mental Health Trajectories"), the program wants children in the early stages of puberty who identify as "transgender, non-binary, or gender-diverse."
Children's National Hospital is tapping a taxpayer-funded LGBTQ activist group to supply "trans" kids willing to participate in the study. On behalf of Children's National, the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), a non-profit near the Capitol Hill complex, is soliciting the parents of elementary-aged children enrolled in Little SMYALs, their K-8 program that coaxes children as young as six-years-old to identify as "transgender."
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Little SMYALs manager, Taryn "Ty" Kitchen ("they/them"), sent the program's participants an email invite, headlined "What could be cooler than a photo of your brain? Supporting advocacy for trans kids, that's what!"
The open call announced that SMYAL was partnering with Children's National Hospital on the study's enlistment efforts and analysis of the data eventually gathered. Kitchen, a self-described "non-binary educator," will be working with Children's National as "a community consultant" to "help interpret and contextualize the eventual results."
Attaching a referral form, Kitchen indicated she'd connect interested individuals with Children's National, going so far as to offer to join the initial appointment. "Would you[r] child feel more comfortable with Ty joining the first meeting with the CNH team? This is optional, but we know sometimes a familiar face goes a long way, especially in a medical setting!" the survey asks.
"Even though we know from experience how important gender-affirming care is for youth, the data simply doesn't exist in a formal way yet, and I'm excited for our community to be a part of creating that!" Kitchen wrote.
Kitchen touted the initiative as an opportunity to "significantly improve the data we have available when advocating for trans kids' rights and access to healthcare."
"Please know that I vet these opportunities seriously before sharing with our families, and am prioritizing this one based on its real potential for national policy and advocacy impact," Kitchen said of "their intentions."
"I've met with the team leading this study several times, and am excited about the work they are doing! They care deeply about trans and gender diverse kids, have extensive experience with autistic youth, and have put so much care and intention into how they have set up this study," Kitchen added.
The overall effects of puberty blockers have yet to be systematically studied. This study, if it yields positive results, would furnish the data that trans activists have long been wanting to back up their claims that puberty blockers are somehow beneficial to the well-being of gender dysphoric pediatric patients.
"Preliminary reports suggest that treatment with GnRHa [hormone agonists] may confer mental health benefits for transgender youth," the study's summary says. "However, GnRHa may also disrupt puberty-signaled neural maturation in ways that can undermine mental health gains over time and impact quality of life in other ways."
On paper, the researchers sound like they're strictly taking an impartial approach, stating outright that they're comparing the two sets of subjects to identify patterns of mental health improvement or worsening in each camp.
However, Children's National already gave away the game — that this venture is more so an act of activism than purely a scientific study.
"We at Children’s National are happy to partner with SMYAL to advance the science of Trans and Gender-Diverse youth health," the research team there wrote, praising the partnership. "Partnering with SMYAL is a true honor, SMYAL has a multi-decade tradition of supporting LGBTQIA+ youth in the community and is truly one of the most impressive programs in the United States. There is very important research published to understand and support trans youth and their care needs. Our partnership project is working to document how different care choices during puberty support trans youth mental health and broader development."
In April, Kitchen established a virtual meet-and-greet via a parent workshop to allow the Little SMYALs families a chance to get acquainted with members of the research team at Children's National Hospital. As Part 2 covered, SMYAL hosts a monthly caregiver conversation series in partnership with Children's National. SMYAL's first parent panel — on the "Intersections of Neurodivergence and Gender-Diversity" — was presented by pediatric neuropsychologist Dr. John F. Strang ("flexible" pronouns), the director of the hospital's "Gender and Autism Program," the only gender clinic in the country specializing in special-needs children, and the lead Trans Development Study researcher at Children's National. Strang also attended the second SMYAL session in July on exploring "gender-related care approaches" mid-puberty. That "training" webinar turned into an introductory class on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
Strang, an ardent proponent of "autistic Pride," has piloted research in the past on autistic "transgender" adolescents. Strang says he works to strengthen autistic youth's "self-advocacy" skills when it comes to expressing their "gender identity."
Meanwhile, the behavioral research arm of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Lurie Children's is advertising the Trans Development Study on a trans advocacy website, Stand With Trans.
Dr. Diane Chen, a pediatric psychologist at the hospital's "Gender and Sex Development Program" and who's in charge of the Trans Development Study at Lurie Children's, focuses on research that "advanc[es] evidence-based affirming care for transgender and nonbinary (TNB) youth."
For further indication of which way the results will lean, let's look at Chen's previous NIH-funded projects. Last year, Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine (which is affiliated with Lurie Children's), touted one of Chen's "clinical breakthroughs" concluding that "Gender-Affirming Hormones Improve Mental Health in Transgender and Nonbinary Youth."
Nicknamed the "Trans Youth Care Study" on "The Impact of Early Medical Treatment in Transgender Youth," the research, reportedly costing more than $9 million in NIH grant money, was collected in collaboration with the gender clinics at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, Boston Children's Hospital, and Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
"Our results provide robust scientific evidence that improved appearance congruence secondary to hormone treatment is strongly linked to better mental health outcomes in transgender and nonbinary youth," Chen, the study's lead author, said. "This is critical, given that transgender youth experience more depression and anxiety, and are at a higher risk for suicidality than cisgender youth."
She neglected to mention that two participants committed suicide during the study: one after six months of follow-up and the other following 12 months of follow-up. The most common "adverse event" was suicidal ideation, seen in 11 participants (3.5 percent). Six withdrew altogether from the study, and two suffered severe anxiety triggered by the study, according to the findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Once recruitment for the Trans Development Study is complete, the research will consist of three check-ins taking place over a two-year period. Participants are paid $150 for every visit. The study includes MRI brain scans, in-person behavioral tasks, and questionnaires completed by the child and caregiver.
According to the grant opportunity, the NIH had originally posted a notice in 2018 calling for broad research on the "health of transgender and gender nonconforming people of all ages." Areas of research sought included studies on the outcomes of long-term hormone use and investigations into the safety of GnRHa at various ages, specifically how suppressing puberty may affect overall physical health and sex-specific brain development.
An NIMH records coordinator has acknowledged receipt of Townhall's request under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) seeking copies of the grant application, award information, and renewal-related submissions. Records responsive to the request are expected to span hundreds of pages, the FOIA officer said.
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