It’s time for a fact-check of North Carolina politics. This week we’re looking at a widely circulated Instagram post claiming that some North Carolina hospital systems are providing gender-transition treatments to toddlers.
Marshall Terry: The post from May 7 says Duke Health offers the services beginning at age 2, UNC Health at age 3 and ECU Health at age 4. The post also claims these systems are "diagnosing toddlers who play with stereotypically opposite-gender toys as having gender dysphoria and are beginning to transition them." Gender dysphoria is when a person feels the biological sex they're born as does not match the gender they identify with. For more, we turn now to Paul Specht of WRAL.
OK, Paul, before we get into the facts here, who was behind this Instagram post, and what's the broader context of the debate around kids and gender transitions in North Carolina?
Paul Specht: Well, it appears this particular post was derived or inspired by a group called Education First Alliance, and they're a conservative group. They don't try to hide that. They didn't respond to our request for comment. And it sort of comes as, you know, these debates and discussions over gender-affirming care are making it to our state capitol. The North Carolina House of Representatives recently passed the Youth Health Protection Act — it's House Bill 808, if you want to go look it up. But it would block the use of state funds for any gender transition-related medical care. That means people wouldn't be able to access hormone blockers or puberty blockers, things of that nature. It passed the [state] House and now can be taken up in the Senate.
Terry: Well, let's start with the first claim in this post. Are these hospital systems that were mentioned offering gender transition treatments to toddlers?
Specht: No. First of all, they say they're not. And secondly, doing so would not be in good medical practice. As a lot of people know, doctors tend to go by what's best medical practice. And the health community, kind of like lawyers go with precedent, you know, things like that. And the World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards does not recommend anything like what they're mentioning for prepubescent children — especially not as young as 2 or 3 or 4 years old — like this post says in the little graphic that they made.
Terry: Now the caption says, these hospital systems are diagnosing toddlers with gender dysphoria if they play with stereotypically opposite-gender toys. So a little girl playing with a truck or a little boy playing with a Barbie doll, as some examples there. Is that claim true?
Specht: No. On its own, that would not be enough to offer any sort of medical intervention or even a diagnosis. That's what the East Carolina University Health spokesperson told us. They said, you know, on its own, a child playing with a toy that's associated with the opposite gender is not an indication of gender dysphoria. They typically look for more serious things like anxiety, distress, depression, coupled with maybe some of that. But again, just your boy liking the color pink or picking up a Barbie, or your girl, you know, playing in the mud with monster trucks is not enough for their doctors, at least, to want to offer any sort of diagnosis.
Terry: So how did you rate these claims?
Specht: We rated them false because there's no evidence. The post said Duke Health, UNC Health and ECU Health are all providing transition care to toddlers, diagnosing them with gender dysphoria and starting to transition them, just for playing with toys that are associated with the opposite gender. Those health systems say they're not doing that. There's no evidence they're doing that. And not only that, the standards of care that are accepted by most credible medical organizations and associations do not recommend those things for children who haven't reached puberty. It would not be medically accepted to do what they are claiming those three hospitals are doing. And there's no evidence that they're doing it. That's why we rated the claim false.
