An agency of the United Methodist Church has expressed support for federal legislation that would eliminate bans on cosmetic sex-change surgeries for trans-identified minors. Bishop Julius C. Trimble, general secretary of the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society, published an article on Monday denouncing discrimination against trans-identified people.
“Transgender youth often experience a combination of sexual harassment, bullying, school violence and estrangement from family members. They are also disproportionately placed in foster care and welfare programs compared to their peers,” wrote Trimble.
“Adult transgender people regularly encounter sexual violence, police violence, public ridicule, misgendering or other forms of violence and harassment in their daily lives.”
Trimble condemned lawmakers who have “enacted anti-transgender legislation” that “restrict access to gender-affirming care, sports, bathrooms and facilities, or the use of gender-affirming pronouns in schools.”
“As United Methodists, we are called to stand with transgender people, rejecting laws that allow politicians to dictate their healthcare decisions,” he continued.
Trimble advocated support for recently introduced federal legislation known as the Transgender Bill of Rights, which he said seeks “to protect and codify the rights of transgender and nonbinary individuals under the law and ensure their access to medical care, shelter, safety, and economic security.”
The bill includes a provision calling for the federal government to reaffirm “the right to bodily autonomy and health care for transgender and nonbinary people by ... eliminating unnecessary governmental restrictions on the provision of, and access to, gender-affirming medical care and counseling for transgender and nonbinary adults and adolescents.” The bill comes as more than half of states now ban the provision of sex-change surgeries or hormone drugs to minors with gender dysphoria.
Jeffrey Corey, senior executive director of communications for the General Board of Church and Society, told The Christian Post that the article reflected “the position of the United Methodist Church.”
Mark Tooley, president of theologically conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy, was among the critics of the statement, telling CP that it “affirms the dignity of transgendered people without citing the Christian teaching of male and female as God’s gifts, and also without citing the challenges to people, often Christians, who are coerced into affirming transgender ideology.”
“Fortunately, the statement will have no public influence,” said Tooley. “Very few United Methodists heed its counsel or even follow its work. In our post-denominational age, a denominational lobby office is truly passé.”
In recent years, there has been considerable debate in the United States and abroad about transgender ideology and the extent to which it should be legal for minors to receive surgical procedures or hormone drugs to reflect their self-declared gender identity.
The New York Times published a feature story in 2022 showing that an increasing number of medical professionals and formerly trans-identified people were concerned about the potential long-term harmful effects of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones on children.
In December 2024, the United Kingdom Department of Health and Social Care
announced that it was banning the use of puberty-blocking drugs on children who struggle with gender dysphoria for the foreseeable future, except for clinical trials.
“The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) has provided independent expert advice that there is currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children,” the department stated at the time.
“Puberty blockers for the treatment of gender incongruence and/or gender dysphoria in under 18s were banned temporarily in May 2024 after the Cass Review found there was insufficient evidence to show they were safe. Legislation will be updated today to make the order indefinite and will be reviewed in 2027.”
Last May, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a 400-plus-page report denouncing "gender-affirming care" for trans-identified children, calling it "invasive" and "usually irreversible" medical interventions.
Regarding concerns about gender transition procedures for children, Corey told CP that “the General Board of Church and Society does not engage in debates concerning trans medical or health care specifics” and that the agency believes such decisions should be left up to individuals and their doctors.
