Canadian financial corporation TD Bank quietly donated half a million dollars to a program earlier this year that conducts so-called “gender-affirming” irreversible procedures on minors.
According to a May 2022 newsletter, the financial institution funded $500,000 through Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations to support “gender transitions” through the McMaster Pediatric Gender Diversity Program, which provides medical and mental health services for “trans and gender diverse youth” at the McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario.
“We are aware that adolescent physical and mental health remains a pressing issue,” Sarah Colley, community relations manager for TD, said. “That’s why we are so pleased to provide support to the McMaster Pediatric Gender Diversity Program through the TD Ready Commitment.”
Current laws do not have an age of consent required for gender reassignment surgery, according to a report by True North.
“There is no general age of consent to treatment or counseling,” Canadian Mental Health Association writes. “Instead, the issue depends on whether the young person is capable of consenting.”
In a True North op-ed, Aaron Kimberly, a transexual man and mental health nurse, wrote that misinformation drives transgender people into transition.
“You would think that today’s gender revolution would make things easier on kids like me, who are now often identified as trans. In fact, I did transition when I was 33 and, though it did help me feel more congruent, that decision was largely based on misinformation,” Kimberly wrote.
According to the website, the program “aims to provide medical and mental health services to trans and gender diverse youth as part of a comprehensive program that includes adolescent medicine” and endocrinology — a practice that transgender individuals require to administer hormone treatments such as puberty blockers and testosterone injections.
Other services include “complete medical referrals and legal referrals such as changing gender markers and a person’s legal name on identification.”
TD Bank—one of the ten largest banks in the United States—established the program In 2016 when the demand for transitioning children had not reached the levels seen today. However, program officials say that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, it began receiving three to four weekly referrals.
Funding for the program will provide so-called care to 30 children under 18 to undergo “gender-affirming” services each year, adding to the 60 to 70 minors the program treats yearly.
Now, the number of minors seeking out such services has reached approximately 150 on the waitlist, who reportedly have to wait an estimated time of 24 months to receive an initial assessment.
Dr. Rosheen Grady, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist at the children’s hospital, said in the newsletter she had encountered a parent whose child was “drowning in depression” before finding the program.
Grady’s statement shows that the child entered the program as male and left as female.
“They realized they have a daughter now, and they’re grateful for the resources and support that the program provided to them,” Grady said. “It can be so rewarding to hear that.”
Grady believes intervening in the lives of “gender-diverse” adolescents could “help support youths to be their healthiest selves.”
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