In a recent opinion piece for The Hill, conservative writer Merrill Matthews managed to twist logic into knots by comparing gender affirming care for trans youth to the lobotomy craze of the mid-20th century. It’s a spectacular feat of mental gymnastics and, frankly, one of the laziest arguments to ever hit print.
Because here’s the truth: gender affirming care isn’t experimental, isn’t invasive for minors, and absolutely isn’t comparable to a surgical assault on the human brain. But since people like Matthews still don’t get it, let’s break it down.
How I spent my Saturday. pic.twitter.com/7V7UQjREE0
— Merrill Matthews (@MerrillMatthews) October 6, 2025
What People Are Really Mad About
Across the U.S., over half of all states have passed laws targeting trans youth, restricting their right to transition, access bathrooms, play sports, or even exist safely in public.
Now, even in liberal states like California, lawmakers are turning their attention to trans adults — pushing bans on HRT stockpiling, attacking insurance coverage, and spreading fear about care that’s proven safe and effective.
When conservatives talk about “protecting children,” what they’re really protecting is their comfort with binary gender norms. It’s not about children’s safety — it’s about control.
The Myth of the “Transgender Surgery Craze”
Matthews warns that “the transgender surgery craze practiced on minors” will someday be as discredited as lobotomies.
That sounds dramatic — until you realize it’s also completely false.
Anti-trans groups like Do No Harm love to inflate statistics. They recently claimed that 5,700 children underwent “transgender surgeries” between 2019 and 2023, citing insurance databases that don’t differentiate between actual surgery and routine medical visits.
A 2024 Harvard study obliterated that talking point. Among teens aged 15–17, the rate of any gender-affirming surgery was just 2.1 per 100,000 — meaning you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than to meet a trans teen who’s had surgery.
For most minors, gender-affirming care involves puberty blockers, not scalpels. These are fully reversible treatments that pause puberty and give young people time to understand their identity — with parental consent and medical oversight.
So no, there’s no “craze.” There’s compassion. There’s science. There’s care.
The Real History of Lobotomies
If Matthews truly wants to talk about lobotomies, he should at least know their history.
At their peak, lobotomies were disproportionately performed on women, often without consent. In the 1940s and ’50s, it was common for husbands or families to authorize the procedure when a woman didn’t “perform her role” properly.
The goal wasn’t healing — it was social control.
By contrast, gender affirming care today is about autonomy and self-determination. Trans youth aren’t being forced into anything. They’re begging to be heard, often after years of being dismissed or invalidated.
When a trans teen begins puberty blockers or HRT, it’s with full understanding, parental support, and medical approval. It’s a far cry from the horror of involuntary lobotomies — and pretending otherwise is willful ignorance.
The Real Modern Equivalent of Lobotomies
If we’re drawing parallels, there’s one practice today that does resemble lobotomies — and that’s conversion therapy.
Conversion therapy, still legal in many states, attempts to “cure” queer and trans people through psychological manipulation, fear, and shame. It’s been discredited by every major medical organization, and its effects are deeply traumatic.
Just last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about whether bans on conversion therapy violate “free speech.” It’s a chilling reminder that the fight for queer safety is far from over.
If anything in today’s world deserves to be compared to lobotomies, it’s that — not gender affirming care that saves lives.
It’s Never Been About the Kids
Author Shirley Jackson once shocked readers with her short story “The Lottery”, where a small town ritually stones a chosen victim to death each year. It was fiction — but it feels like an allegory for our times.
Because when conservatives claim they’re “protecting kids,” their actions tell a different story.
This year alone, 118 school shootings have occurred in the U.S., leaving 36 children dead. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death among minors. Yet these same lawmakers who cry over trans teens in therapy do nothing about children being shot in classrooms.
We’ve accepted daily child deaths as the price of the Second Amendment. We’ve normalized sports that cause brain injuries in minors. But we panic over puberty blockers, which have zero fatality risk.
Even detransition rates — around 3% — are comparable to sports injury rates. And those who detransition are not “ruined”; they continue to live full lives.
So no, this isn’t about protecting kids. It’s about preserving power, punishing difference, and erasing trans people from public life.
The Real Issue: Letting Trans Kids Exist
At the end of the day, Merrill Matthews and those who think like him don’t care about “medical ethics.” What they fear is a world where trans children live, thrive, and are loved.
They’d rather see a dead child than a happy trans one. That’s the quiet part they rarely say aloud.
So no, gender affirming care isn’t a lobotomy. But if anyone’s brain needs rewiring, it’s the adults who can’t comprehend the simple truth that trans kids deserve to exist.
Because unlike lobotomies, gender affirming care heals. It doesn’t erase who you are — it helps you become who you’ve always been.
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