Undercover Video Reveals Culture of Excessive Affirmation in Transgender Centers

In Project Veritas’s (PV) Wednesday expose, “Too Young,” Part One, undercover footage from the sordid world of gender transitions for minors reveals shocking revelations — children starting as young as eight, 14-year-olds considered “mature enough” to consent, and mentally damaged youth experiencing a barrage of manipulation and pressure throughout the most vulnerable time of their lives. But no less devastating is the subtle, persistent culture of “affirmation,” which sacrifices medical prudence and the child’s well-being to the selfish interests of the transgender cult.

The effusive, pro-transgender affirmation was evident from the PV journalist’s (PVJ) very first encounter with the New York medical system, in which the reporter posed as a parent seeking medical and surgical transitions for a 10-year-old girl. The PVJ recorded the following exchange with Dr. Matthew Pabis, a family medicine specialist at St. Mark’s Institute for Mental Health in New York City:

PVJ: “You don’t think anybody can do that for a 10-year-old? Do the surgery?”

Pabis: “They could, yeah!”

Pabis asserted this without hesitation, despite a lack of personal experience:

Pabis: “I’m just, I’ve never done [gender transition surgery on] a 10-year-old, to be quite fair with you. I’ve done 15, 16 [years old].”

Not only did Pabis lack personal experience with performing gender transition surgery on a 10-year-old, but he lacked personal knowledge of anyone who might do it.

Pabis: “I’d have to think about [it], but I usually don’t do such young kids, 10 years old. So, I’ll look, I’ll call around and find a place for you guys. I won’t leave you guys hanging. So like, I know Callen-Lorde. I don’t know if you looked them up. They’re a big thing. They might do children. I just might call around.

More on Callen-Lorde in just a moment.

After his initial enthusiastic promise, Pabis’s medical instincts kicked in, urging caution. First he said a psychiatrist would need to sign off on a surgery so young, although he remained positive they would do so.

PVJ: “To reduce it [breasts]. That’s who we’re looking for.”

Pabis [visibly taken aback]: “That’s gonna definitely [need] a psychiatrist to sign off on it, 100%.”

PVJ: “If we were able to get that, though, from a certified psychiatrist, we could bring that into the person to do the surgery?”

Pabis: “Then the surgeon would be able to do it.”

PVJ: “They wouldn’t be, like, ‘Oh, they’re too young’?”

Pabis: “Again, the sort of psychiatrist — I’m going to hook you up with the groups that actually do this — like, centers. Centers that do this. So, they will have all the resources in one. I’m not going to leave you hanging.”

Then, Pabis began to express medical concerns about the possible negative side effects of puberty blockers, such as stunting growth. (Also, note the use of masculine pronouns for a hypothetical 10-year-old girl):

Pabis: “Just, at 10 years old, it’s right when puberty sings, so I don’t know — I don’t want to shortchange him and start [puberty] blockers and something [happens like] his bone’s fused, and he’s short. You know what I mean? Like, I don’t know if he’d be better to, like, delay puberty, or whatever they do, til age 14, let him grow a little bit and then start the T [testosterone].”

PVJ: “It’s just the trauma of everything.”

Pabis: “Of course, no, no, no. That also takes into it that, like, should we just be on blockers now? Like, where nothing’s going to grow. The hormone blockers, once you get over, like, they’ll just stop you where you are.”

To summarize, Dr. Pabis essentially said, “Sure, your 10-year-old can get her breasts amputated. Not that I would do it, or know anyone who would. Of course, you’d need to get a psychiatrist to sign off on that, and it might negatively interfere with puberty, but sure!”

I don’t mean to pick on Pabis too much. The likeliest explanation seems to be that he didn’t really know what he was talking about. After all, his focus is “family medicine,” not gender transitions, and even the specialist he recommended doesn’t perform gender transition surgeries (more on that soon).

When PV finally did contact a gender transition specialist, his advice was quite different. “I follow the WPATH guidelines, the World Professional Association of Transgender Health guidelines. And really what they would say is, the way to go at this age, age 10, would be something like a puberty blocker.” (While Boston Children’s Hospital and at least a dozen other transgender centers perform gender transition surgeries on minors, most would content themselves with hormones for a pre-pubescent 10-year-old.)

The deeper question, then, is, why did Dr. Pabis speak so encouragingly about a topic so far beyond his medical knowledge?

To answer that question, it may be helpful to consider the context of New York politics. “Nothing in existing state law,” wrote New York Family Magazine, “restricts gender-affirming care in New York, according to the governor’s office.” In fact, last year the New York Senate considered California-style legislation to make the state a destination for minor gender transition tourism, while New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) has made a habit of challenging other state policies that are less rabidly pro-transgender. The city of New York also bolsters the transgender cause, stating on its official website, “Transgender, gender non-conforming and non-binary people … should receive care that is affirming, respectful and considerate of their health concerns and goals. … You have the right to advocate for your health needs and ensure that you are receiving the care that is most appropriate for you.”

In this environment, a physician is more likely to be sued for showing insufficient affirmation for a person’s desire to transition to the opposite gender than for making overly zealous statements in favor of their transition. I would imagine that many general practitioners would have adopted the same compliant manner as Dr. Pabis, simply as a prudent step to avoid legal liability.

“The transgender population has become a ‘cause celebre’ for civil rights. And our government, unfortunately, is pushing very hard to equate gender and biologic sex in terms of its importance and its innate nature,” Dr. Quentin Van Meter, former president of the American College of Pediatricians, said on “Washington Watch.” “Politically, left-wing activists are grabbing a hold of this and making it a civil right as strong as race, and no one wants to go against that and ‘go backwards in time’ — to do things that were really biologically based.”

The PVJ next went to Callen-Lorde Community Health Center on Dr. Pabis’s recommendation, where the reporter recorded interactions with a “patient experience specialist” named Em Vitiello, who appeared to identify as transgender. Like Pabis, Vitiello was only too glad to help — although possibly from more ideological reasons — but ultimately could provide little concrete assistance. He(?) had to inform the PVJ that Callen-Lorde neither performed surgeries nor served clients younger than 13:

Vitiello: “So, we don’t have any surgical care. That’s not part of anything we do here. But we refer patients. Like, we have surgery navigators, like a team of them, that help with external surgery.”

…

Vitiello: “So, I am not sure why we don’t take people younger than 13.”

…

Vitiello: “Yeah, I don’t know what the youngest would be, but I can try to get that information.”

…

Vitiello: “Okay, so I spoke to her, and the only reason we cut off at 13 is because we are, like, [a] teen/adolescent program. It’s, like, literally the only reason that we don’t do pediatric care. She said that it definitely exists. Like, pediatric trans care definitely exists.”

Vitiello eventually tracked down a recommendation for the Adolescent Clinic at Mount Sinai hospital, referencing a print-out that may have been an email:

Vitiello: “So, Mount Sinai Adolescent Clinic, they start at age 10. Kind and supportive, have tons of group and supportive services. So this is the website to it.”

…

Vitiello: “She did say this about surgery ….”

The portion of the printout visible in PV’s published footage reads:

“Ah I love this question even though it’s so tough. I actually highly recommend Mount Sinai Adolescent Clinic. They start at age 10, the doctor there John Steever, is super kind and supportive, and they have a ton of groups, supportive services, etc. If they do want to pursue surgery, it’s always good to be within the hospital system already. Just an FYI in terms of that, actually quite a few surgeons will perform on youth, the barrier is with insurance so it ends up being out of pocket.”

As The Washington Stand previously reported, Dr. John Steever recommended puberty blockers for a 10-year-old with no evaluation, and he outlined a years-long treatment plan including cross-sex hormones and surgery in a single conversation. For a New York pre-teen confused about his or her gender, the unanimous “affirmation” could only serve to push him or her into a transgender identity.

The ideological insanity of the transgender movement has so permeated the medical community that physicians who have little to do with gender transition feel pressured to provide “gender affirming” care.

Dr. Van Meter warned last summer that physicians treating young people experiencing gender dysphoria should be “affirming their biologic sex within their body” instead of “attempting to convert their sex to the opposite sex, which is medically impossible.” By contrast, so-called transgender-affirming care, leading to gender transition procedures is merely “giving in to the emotional whim of the child,” he added. “They’re calling that affirmation … when it is truly conversion.”