(Texas Scorecard) – A nonprofit in Texas that markets itself towards LGBT youth has promoted gender mutilation procedures to minors.
The name of this nonprofit is Out Youth Austin. It is more than 30 years old and is behind the push for Gay Straight Alliance clubs in Texas schools. These are also called Genders and Sexualities Alliance clubs.
In November 2017, an Austin ISD report showed that the district decided to push the growth of these clubs district-wide, even into elementary schools. Texas Scorecard covered the report in May. Aileen Blachowski, a parent education advocate with Texas Education 911, warned about these clubs. After her firsthand experience helping parents deal with them in California, she said these clubs expose minors to all kinds of aberrant sexuality.
These clubs are advertised as “student-led.” However, Blachowski said because all student clubs need a faculty sponsor, the reality is that these are “grooming grounds.” As it turned out, Out Youth Austin (OYA) runs a project to put GSA clubs into schools statewide. It’s called the Texas GSA Network. It provides, or in some cases points to, resources for starting and running these clubs, even for elementary-level students. It also has a map of such clubs across the state.
That is not all OYA has promoted to minors. This four-part investigative series will examine more of their offerings. Texas Scorecard has contacted OYA multiple times requesting comment. They chose not to respond.
Trans Guide
The protection of children has been one of the central issues in the current culture war raging in the Western world. On one side, the LGBT movement argues that children should be allowed to follow their feelings and identify as a different sex. This often devolves into gender mutilation and manipulation procedures. The former involves operations to cut off human genitalia in order to try and change one’s sex. The latter, otherwise known as Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), involves pumping the body with hormones of the opposite sex. The other side argues that children are being encouraged to destroy themselves with these dangerous procedures.
Over time, scientific research has reported data that supports the pro-child protection side. Texas Scorecard’s 2022 investigative series examined multiple scientific reports and professionals that sounded alarms about these procedures. One of these figures was Dr. Andre Van Mol, co-chair of the American College of Pediatrician’s Committee on Adolescent Sexuality. He said that it’s impossible to change one’s sex, and doing so doesn’t improve one’s mental health. “Fad medicine is bad medicine, and gender anxious people deserve better than the rush to transition,” he said.
For years, the grassroots have been concerned about these procedures being available for minors. In 2023, they succeeded in getting state lawmakers to outlaw them for those under 18. Yet, as late as July 2024, Out Youth Austin offered a 45-page “Trans Resource Guide” that guided minors to HRT providers that “are known to have worked with trans youth under the age of 18.” For context, the guide’s writers included two dates on their document: February 2024 and May 2024. Additionally, they added that the guide updated automatically every five minutes.
OYA blocked access to the original guide after Texas Scorecard contacted every named medical provider on their list. A copy of it has been archived and is available here. Every provider flatly denied offering these services to minors.
One name on this list wasn’t a surprise: Children’s Health Dallas GENECIS Program. The Dallas Express reported on them as recently as July and September 2022 for providing these services to minors. Children’s Health gave a short response: “We follow and adhere to all state health care laws. As such, the services are not provided by our system.”
Twice, the University of Texas came up on this list. OYA’s guide pointed to Walter J. Meyer, MD of University of Texas Medical Branch Health in Galveston. Christopher Gonzales, UTMB’s director of media relations, gave this statement: “Dr. Walter J. Meyer retired in 2019 and has not seen patients at UTMB since then.” When asked, Gonzales wrote that UTMB is in full compliance with state law. They ended HRT and any other “gender-affirming care” for minors in February 2023. The second UT name was Dr. Maria C. Monge, M.D., a faculty member at the University of Texas-Austin Dell Medical School. Mary Cope, Director of Strategic Content, called Texas Scorecard back and said the OYA guide was “incorrect.” “[Dr. Monge] does not provide hormone replacement therapy to anyone under the age of 18, and that’s true both in her capacity as an associate professor at Dell Med and in a small private practice that she has that is not associated with Dell Med or UT.”
Dr. Monge has been in the news before. In May 2023, she was one of the doctors who left Dell Children’s adolescent clinic. This was after Attorney General Ken Paxton started an investigation into the clinic for providing gender mutilation procedures to minors. Dell Children’s in Austin is also on Out Youth Austin’s guide. A spokesperson for Ascension, Dell Children’s parent company, gave the following statement: “Dell Children’s Medical Center prohibits surgeries and hormone therapy for the treatment of gender dysphoria for children, in accordance with Texas law. While these interventions are not provided, Dell Children’s does provide a safe and welcoming place for all children seeking care and provides a full range of pediatric mental health care, from outpatient clinic programs to partial and full inpatient hospital programs, for all our pediatric patients.”
Dr. Monge’s LinkedIn profile showed she has been an associate professor at UT-Austin’s Dell Medical School since June 2015. She started her own firm, Rising Together Healthcare, in September 2023. Texas Scorecard asked Cope when Dr. Monge stopped providing these services. “I have not spoken to her about that,” Cope replied. “I know she’s, of course like many of us are, following the law, is in compliance with the law. I assume that would have been at the time the law went into effect if not before.”
Pride Family Medicine in Cedar Park, the next on OYA’s list, stated they too were following the law. “Pride Family Medicine adheres to all legal guidelines and laws. We do not provide HRT to minor patients,” Eric Behm of Pride Family replied. “Unfortunately, we do not have any direct control of what other entities have posted. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention and will reach out to them to address this error.”
Community Health Center South Central Texas gave a much longer reply. OYA’s guide indicated Dr. Mary Jane Wray of their Luling Community Health Center had provided HRT to minors. “First, I would like to clarify that the Community Health Centers of South Central Texas, Inc. (CHCSCT) has no affiliation with Out Youth Austin and was not involved in the creation of the ‘Trans Wellness Resource Guide.’ We appreciate you bringing this matter to our attention and will take the necessary steps to request the removal of our organization from the guide, as the information is inaccurate,” CEO Rafael De La Paz wrote. “Moreover, as of September 1, 2023, in compliance with Texas Senate Bill 14 titled ‘Relating to prohibitions on the provision to certain children of procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender reassignment, or gender dysphoria and on the use of public money or public assistance to provide those procedures and treatments,’ CHCSCT medical practitioners no longer provide such care. Please be assured that CHCSCT’s policy is to comply with state law, and we have ceased offering such care to minors as required.”
Out Youth Austin’s guide also gave a list of medical practitioners who perform gender mutilation surgeries in Austin and San Antonio. The guide claimed that only one of those practitioners provided these procedures to minors: the Crane Center in Austin. OYA’s guide stated they “will perform certain surgeries to clients under 18 with parental consent and additional requirements.” Of note, the Crane Center’s website has OYA’s “Transgender Wellness” logo. However, they flatly denied still providing these procedures to minors. “The Crane Center in Austin does not perform surgeries on clients under 18. We follow WPATH guidelines for all surgeries. Publishing anything outside of this would not be true,” wrote Gieselle Wolf, Crane Center’s COO and CFO.
OYA did not respond to questions about the answers from the providers they listed.
More to Unveil
This is just one list of resources among others in Central Texas for the “trans and non-binary community.” OYA published it as part of their “Transgender Wellness” project. But they offer more than just guides to funnel minors to “trans” services. That’s what someone who struggled with gender dysphoria found out, and it outraged her.