Chloe Cole: This is being recommended so flippantly now
Chloe Cole testified before the House Judiciary Committee on her experience with gender-changing treatments, and she tells ‘America Reports’ that children are directing their own medical treatment.
A detransitioned woman says she feels "happy and relieved" after Ohio’s "major win" last week in passing new legislation to ban minors from receiving hormones and sex reassignment surgeries.
The new law, which also restricts transgender women from participating in sports, passed after state senators voted to override Republican Governor Mike DeWine's veto.
Chloe Cole, who previously described to Fox News how she underwent "gender-affirming treatment" as a young teen and later regretted it, says the phrase itself is used in a misleading way.
"It is... a euphemism, much like the terms that practitioners often use to refer to these treatments — ‘bottom surgery’ (genital modification and removal surgeries), ‘top surgery’ (surgical breast/nipple removal or augmentations)," she told Fox News Digital.
"These simplified and almost infantilized phrases heavily downplay the seriousness of these procedures that ultimately serve a cosmetic purpose and take away function from the body."
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Chloe Cole speaks as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) looks on during a news conference on Capitol Hill September 20, 2022 in Washington, DC. ( Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Cole said those who encourage this treatment for children are ignoring their right to "grow up into a healthy, wholly intact adult who is able to live life to the fullest" as transgender treatments can cause sterilization, sexual dysfunction and underdevelopment of the body. While parents are often encouraged to pursue such treatments to avoid their children committing suicide, Cole said studies indicate suicide rates are 19 times higher post-op.
"Taking away one’s reproductive capabilities, halting perfectly natural development and making one reliant on the pharmaceutical industry for life does the very opposite of that," Cole explained. "This bill also does not affect the ability of transgender adults to pursue medical transition, either."
All-American swimmer Riley Gaines also praised the bill as a "huge win" for Americans and an "emphatic and definite way to show that Ohio does, in fact, stand with women and with children."
The activist, who competed against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, expressed her gratitude to Rep. Gary Click for sponsoring the bill and lawmakers for overriding the governor's veto.
"I know they've been working on it for a long time and ... it's definitely no easy feat what they have done. But they're saving girls and women and children all across Ohio and setting the precedent for the nation," she said.
The Independent Women's Forum ambassador, who is pushing for states to implement the Women's Bill of Rights and define what a woman is, explained that the issue of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports is so important due to safety and the privacy of girls changing in their locker rooms.
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Former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines testifies during a House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services hearing on Capitol Hill December 5, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
"We've already seen multiple concussions in volleyball, in basketball, career-ending injuries by these men who are posing as women," she said. "Most recently in field hockey, we saw a girl get her teeth knocked out. She had to undergo facial and dental surgeries. It ruins, not only, that one female's season or even career, but it discourages others from playing. Now, we've seen the lunacy of what USA Boxing has done, which is just really appalling."
"More than frustrating, more than any anger, I feel heartbroken," Gaines continued. "It's wild that in the name of progress, we are now awarding and celebrating men for beating up on women. That's just wild and so, yes, the safety aspect is certainly a big piece that should wake up a lot of parents and open the eyes of a lot of our leaders have pushed these policies along in the name of inclusion and compassion, of being kind. I guess my response to that is, where is your compassion? Where is your compassion for the women?"
Gov. DeWine previously said in a press conference that he vetoed the legislation because "the consequences of this bill could not be more profound" for children that suffer from gender dysphoria.
"Ultimately, I believe this is about protecting human life," he said. "Many parents have told me that their child would not have survived, would be dead today if they had not received the treatment they received from one of Ohio's children's hospitals. I've also been told by those who are now grown adults that, but for this care, they would have taken their life when they were teenagers."
Former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is from Ohio, rejected DeWine's sentiment.
"Ohio Governor Mike DeWine just vetoed a simple law that would have stopped boys from competing in girls’ sports & stopped kids from undergoing genital mutilation & chemical castration," he wrote on X. "Even Ohio’s Lt. Governor @JonHusted favored passage of the bill. Shame on DeWine."
Fox News' Paulina Dedaj and Houston Keene contributed to this report.