Transgender Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine says changing kids' genders has the 'highest support' of the Biden administration and is key to the mental health of minors

• Transgender Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine says that gender-affirming care for minors has the 'highest support' of the Biden administration
• Levine promised medically changing children's gender would be normalized  -praising the controversial medical intervention banned in several states
• Levine was invited to speak at the event about the Florida Parental Rights in Education law and the political implications of gender reassignment surgery 

Transgender Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine says that gender-affirming care for minors has the 'highest support' of the Biden administration.

Levine has promised that medically changing children's gender will soon be normalized, praising the controversial medical intervention which has been banned in several states at the Pediatric Grand Rounds Session at Children's Medical Center in Hartford.

Levine was invited to speak at the event about the Florida Parental Rights in Education law and the political implications of gender reassignment surgery taking place at children's hospitals.

'I can say that you, the children that you serve, the young people that you serve, their families, and you all have support at the highest levels of the federal government. 

'President Biden supports you. I as the Assistant Secretary for Health will support you and I talk about this topic, everywhere I go, to get the word out,' she said. 

'But I am positive and optimistic and hopeful that the wheel will turn after that and that this issue won't be as politically and socially such a minefield.'

Dr. Stanley Goldfarb of Do No Harm organization, a national association of medical professionals that combats 'woke' activism in the healthcare system, told Fox News that there is 'no good evidence' to back these claims.

'Levine's appearance at Connecticut Children's Hospital praising 'gender-affirming care' for minors and claiming it will be fully embraced is wrong and must be countered,' Goldfarb said.

'There is no good evidence that children treated with gender-altering hormones or puberty blockers have improved mental health assessments.'

A recent study from the University of Washington showed that there was no change in the psychological well-being of minors, Goldfarb added.

'There can be irrevocable harm being done to children by those pushing for these radical, ideologically driven, treatments,' he said.

'Treatment for minors needs to be based on rigorous scientific inquiry, not on dubious, agenda-driven studies or the demands of activists.'

Rep. Andy Harris, a member of the House Doctors Caucus and Co-Chair of the Pro-Life Caucus, said that Levine's comments are 'reprehensible.'

'It's reprehensible for a government official, let alone the Assistant U.S. Secretary of HHS to promote the genital mutilation of minors as becoming a standard practice in the U.S,' he said.

'As a physician, I was proud to co-sponsor the 'Protect Children's Innocence Act' which would prohibit harmful medical procedures used to treat gender dysphoria in transgender minors, including puberty blockers and surgeries in which minors alter their body to correspond to a sex that differs from their biological sex.'

He added: 'Many pediatricians, particularly pediatric endocrinologists, have expressed serious concerns about the use of puberty blockers, hormone blockers, and sex transition surgeries in minors.

'These doctors know that these medications and procedures can impact children's bone growth, fertility, and risk of breast and prostate cancer.

'Meanwhile, HHS has pressured providers to provide this care or else face discrimination lawsuits. We must protect our children.'

The comments come after U.S. president Joe Biden slammed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, without naming him, by calling the state's actions to transgender youth 'close to sinful.'

Florida's medical boards voted to ban puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-affirming surgeries on children in November.

This follows a parental rights' bill the governor signed earlier in the year banning teachers from giving classroom instruction on 'sexual orientation' or 'gender identity' in kindergarten through third grade.

Biden attacked Florida's response to transgender youth issues in an interview with former Obama aide Kal Penn on 'The Daily Show.'

'It's just terrible what they're doing,' Biden said in the video.

'It's not like, you know, a kid wakes up one morning and says, you know, I decided I wanted to become a man, or I want to become a woman. I mean, what are they thinking about?

'What's going on in Florida is, as my mother would say, close to sinful. I mean it's just terrible what they're doing.'

But, DeSantis' health administration in Florida pushed back on Biden's comments. 

Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida told DailyMail.com that the federal government pushing those with gender dysmorphia to receive surgeries as minors is the real 'sin' and is 'decades behind other developed countries.'

The president's attack on DeSantis and the initiatives in his state is in preparation for a head-to-head presidential election with the governor who has not yet announced a White House bid but is expected to enter the GOP primary in the matter of months.

'It is not 'sinful' to prohibit the mutilation of minors,' DeSantis tweeted on Tuesday. 

'It is not acceptable for the federal government to mandate that procedures like sex change operations be allowed for kids.' 

Republican lawmakers in Florida introduced several bills this session that activists claim are regressive and will strip members of the LGBTQ community of their rights.

'The 'gender-affirming' model pushed by the Biden Administration is decades behind other developed countries, including Sweden and most recently Norway,' Weida told DailyMail.com.

'What is 'sinful' is the establishment pushing harmful surgeries and treatment with long-term effects on minors with no accountability or transparency.'

Opponents of the proposed legislation in the Sunshine State say that the governor is using the guise of education and parental rights to implement laws they say are anti-gay and anti-transgender.

One bill, for example, would outlaw transgender surgeries and healthcare, like puberty blockers and hormone therapy, for children who say they are the opposite gender in which they were born.

Weida said that the new Florida laws are consistent with what was found after the state's Agency for Health Care Administration conducted a review in 2022 of services promoted by Biden and the federal government to treat gender dysmorphia in minors.

'Last year, the Agency conducted a thorough review of several services promoted by the Federal Government to treat gender dysphoria and found that these services – sex reassignment surgery, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers – are not consistent with widely accepted professional medical standards and are experimental and investigational with the potential for harmful long term affects,' he said.

DeSantis released his memoir 'The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival' last month and is currently on a book tour that many see as a pre-presidential bid announcement trip around the states.

The book and the priorities of Florida's current legislative sessions are primarily viewed as a platform on which DeSantis would run his campaign once he launched a 2024 bid for the GOP nomination.

The Parental Rights in Education law, which the governor signed last year, was dubbed by critics the 'Don't Say Gay' bill – because it prevented educators from including in their classroom curriculum discussions on gender identity or sexual orientation. 

The law currently includes children in kindergarten through third grade, but the Florida legislature is now considering expanding that to include minors up to the eighth grade.