The Timeless Truth of Sex

Admiral Brian Christine, Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, speaking at the 2026 Detrans Awareness Day conference

For a long time, American institutions were mired in a morass of gender ideology. Today, changes are coming thick and fast. Under the current administration, the United States has emerged as a leader in safeguarding minors and vulnerable adults from the harms associated with sex-rejecting medical procedures. The U.S. is also now taking detransitioners seriously and prioritizing evidence-based approaches that avoid unnecessary risks to physical and mental health. In the final video in this series from Genspect’s 2026 Detrans Awareness Day conference, Admiral Brian Christine, Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), talks about the administration’s serious commitment to child welfare and to restoring the chain of trust.

Health Care and Politics

Admiral Christine acknowledges that gender dysphoria and declining mental health can result in great suffering for the most vulnerable members of society. He draws attention to the skyrocketing numbers of children and adolescents who are questioning their sex and cites the figure of 14,000 minors who underwent sex-rejecting procedures in the U.S. between 2019 and 2023. His fundamental responsibility, as the assistant secretary for health, is to protect the nation’s children from irreversible and likely lifelong harm.

Christine cuts straight to the heart of so-called “gender-affirming care”. For too long, vulnerable children and their families have been the plaything of a radical agenda pushed by political activists and “wolves in sheep’s clothing”: WPATH, the Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics. This medical establishment pushes treatments for pediatric gender dysphoria and often coerces parents into affirming identities to the detriment of their children. Christine is adamant that this is neither science nor healthcare. It is simply wrong. Protecting children from irreversible medical interventions should never be a partisan issue. Whatever a person’s politics, everyone should understand that children deserve healthcare guided by the strongest available evidence. As Nancy McDermott, who introduces this conference talk, puts it elsewhere, the policy changes being pursued by the current U.S. administration are:

“the product of years of hard graft by individuals and organizations who are —the slurs of trans activists notwithstanding —like the makeup of Genspect’s Bigger Picture Conference, decidedly moderate.”

Evidence-Based Medicine

It is a timeless truth, says Christine, that “boys are boys, girls are girls. And no amount of damaging, life-altering chemicals or sex-rejecting surgeries can ever change that.” The HHS review of the evidence showed that the “evidence base” for the benefits of sex-rejecting medicine is extremely weak. In his talk, Christine explains the three key takeaways of this landmark study: the very low quality of the evidence for sex-rejecting treatment approaches; the significant potential for real harm posed by hormonal innovations and surgeries for minors with gender dysphoria; and the incompatibility of these treatments with widely endorsed principles of medical ethics. Christine speaks from his own 30 years of professional experience as a urologic surgeon when he says: “Every time that I put a scalpel to flesh I knew there was a potential for complications. And the complications from mutilating surgeries can plague these children potentially for a lifetime.”

These unadorned truths and refreshing common sense stand in stark contrast to a belief system that has debased so much of our politics to such an extent that it is even deemed acceptable by many (as a recent case in the UK shows) to permit, and even celebrate, adults who transition children as young as two years old.

Instead of sex-rejecting interventions, whether social or medical transition, Christine emphasises that the U.S. administration believes that parents and children should receive competent counselling and compassionate trauma-informed health support: “When parents seek professional help for a child who is suffering from gender dysphoria, the medical community should provide gold standard solutions through psychotherapy and mental health treatment.”

Restoring the Chain of Trust

Brian Christine outlines measures the current administration is taking. It’s an uphill battle, but the administration is determined to press on. One major breakthrough is the opening of new clinics and provision of resources for the long-neglected group of detransitioners. Under pressure from the United States Department of Justice, Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) is setting up a clinic for detransitioners, and The Cleveland Clinic has agreed to stop medicalizing minors for 20 years and earmarked $2 million to cover the costs for those seeking treatment. This is where the administration is restoring the chain of trust broken by the scandal of “gender-affirming care”.

Detransition clinics will serve the population to which Genspect is committed. Genspect is already in contact with hundreds of detransitioners through its Beyond Trans program, Detrans Awareness Day conferences, and other events stretching back nearly a decade. For Genspect, engaged citizenship is not about partisan politics of the right or left, but about doing what is right for children and vulnerable adults, defending the rights of LGB people, and historic achievements, such as single-sex facilities, female sports categories, and childhood innocence. Admiral Christine’s talk offers hope that reality will prevail and that the health and well-being of children and young people will finally take priority over rigid political beliefs. All the DAD videos are now available to watch on our YouTube channel.

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