(CNN)Children's Hospital Boston is "home to the nation's first transgender health program for children and adolescents, said it faced threats of "massive" violence for providing that kind of care.
The hospital said in an emailed statement Wednesday that It said clinicians and staff had been harassed by phone, email, and social media, and received multiple threats of violence.
Threats increased after misinformation spread online suggesting hospitals were performing genital surgery on young children. It states that it provides comprehensive care for children who identify as nonbinary, but the surgery is performed only on consenting adults.
"It is used to reflect the standard age of an adult for adults. Boston Children's does not perform genital surgery as part of gender-affirming care for patients under the age of 18," the statement said. Say.
"We condemn these attacks in the strongest terms possible and reject any false statements on which they are based. We are working with law enforcement to "We will hold clinicians, staff, patients, families, and the wider Boston children's community accountable, and hold criminals accountable," the hospital said.
The harassment followed various posts from individual social media users and from the Twitter account LibsofTikTok, which shares a series of anti-LGBTQ messages with its 1.3 million followers. . In this case, the account posted a video of a doctor explaining her hysterectomy on Aug. 11, but made no mention of a young girl or minor.
"Boston Children's Hospital (@BostonChildrens) now offers 'gender-confirming hysterectomy' for young girls," reads the text of the post.
The US Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts said Wednesday that reports of threats against Boston Children were "disturbing to say the least." We deserve the opportunity to grow and develop as ourselves, and parents/guardians and health care providers who support children in the process should be allowed to do so without intimidation or harassment. It is clear that the Department of Justice will ensure equal protection for transgender people under the law," said Attorney Rachel Rollins in a statement on her office's website.30}
Rollins said her new 1-83-END-H8-NOW hotline has ``dozens of calls'' and will pursue all leads .
“Freedom of speech is certainly the foundation of our great nation, but fear, intimidation and intimidation are not. I will not sit idly by," she said.
What is gender-affirming care?
The Children's Hospital Association states that it also supports gender-affirming and developmentally appropriate health care.
“Studies show that gender-affirming care improves the health and overall well-being of children and young people when families and health professionals work together to make health care decisions. "We condemn all violence and intimidation against pediatric patients, their families, and medical staff who make decisions that affect a child's health," the association said in an email Wednesday.
Similarities to the Anti-Abortion Movement
She monitors LGBTQ rhetoric and said: She said she was "shocked, but not surprised" that the threats followed the post. , there is also a broader atmosphere," she said.
"If you have an account with millions of followers that amplifies the misinformation that 'young girls' are being hysterectomized, suddenly this is making people take action. It's not all that surprising that it's a reason to wake up and create threats and harassment against hospitals," Caraballo added.
She said the Boston hospital was the first to offer gender-affirming treatment and would not be the last to experience such harassment.
" I don't think people understand the extent of it," Carvallo said of the threat to the LGBTQ community in general and to clinics that provide such care in particular. "There is a constant drumbeat of homophobic and transphobic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric."
Caraballo said there may be specific strategies to target children in Boston. It's nearly impossible to pass a law that bans care.
"So they will resort to this kind of digital vigilante to effectively blackmail and shut down these programs through intimidation and violence. This is essentially an anti-abortion strategy.
Some far-right groups, as one website puts it, "seek justice for victims" in clinics that offer gender-affirming treatment. She says she made a map.
The site also encourages people to document what clinics are doing to show "people who are harming vulnerable children for profit." .
"Set the sights on"
Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent and young adult medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, said harassment.
He is not gender specific working at his affirmation care clinic. However, he says he is being harassed online because he is gay, treats LGBTQ patients, and posts on his social media on behalf of the community.
For example, when he posted a tweet opposing a Florida bill that would limit what teachers could talk about in class about sexual orientation and gender identity, he responded with threats and homophobic slurs. We received a "concentrated fire".
A constant denigration was that he was a pedophile.
"It's hard because I'm the father of his two young children and I'm also a pediatrician," he said.
“I think it is important to advocate for many things: the safety of our colleagues, the health and well-being of young people and their families, and thoughtful policies.
"But even if it's evidence-based, just standing up for the care of young people, you're crossing the line." For my own safety and that of my loved ones, I am deliberately taking a step back from advocating. , it feels necessary.