Ladapo Shares Story of Woman That Overcame Gender Dysphoria: ‘My Transgender Identity Was a Coping Mechanism’
July 19, 2022 Updated 2:17 P.M. ET
TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has continued to share stories of people speaking out against affirming a minor’s transgender identity.
Ladapo released a video Tuesday of a woman named Erin Brewerin who shared how her trauma contributed to gender dysphoria. Brewerin was assaulted as a young girl.
“A little girl who became convinced at the moment of the assault, that I was not safe being a girl, that the only way I could keep it from happening ever again was to become a boy,” she explained.
Brewerin said if she would have medically transitioned, she wouldn’t have gotten the help needed to work through self-hatred and shame.
“I can’t imagine the impact of being told by doctors and teachers and other adults that I was born in the wrong body, that I was inherently flawed,” Brewerin said. “Who would have reinforced all the mistaken beliefs that I had that caused me to develop gender dysphoria in the first place? That being a girl was bad, that it was my fault that those men hurt me that my body was a mistake, and then it was too dangerous to be poor girl.”
Brewerin said a psychologist helped her understand that her transgender identity was a coping mechanism.
“I’m so thankful for the psychologist who put me on the path of healing and I’m grateful to other therapists who put me who helped me to understand that my transgender identity was the result of the sexual assault and not because I’m born in the wrong body,” Brewerin said.
Surgeon General Ladapo said trauma is tragic and can contribute to gender dysphoria in some people.
“These individuals need compassion. Not medicalization and treatment based on flawed data that doesn’t show benefit,” Ladapo said.
The Biden Administration Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Admiral Levine said minors should be “empowered” to go receive “gender affirmation treatment.”
“We really want to base our treatment and affirm and to support and empower these youth not to limit their participation and activities and sports and even limit their ability to get gender affirmation treatment in their state,” Levine said.
The Florida Department of Health issued guidance against the gender transition of minors. According to the state agency, there is a lack of high-quality evidence supporting any guidance promoting gender-affirming clinical care.
Florida Medicaid released a report that said research supporting sex reassignment treatment is “insufficient to demonstrate efficacy and safety.”
The Secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration requested Florida Medicaid program review to determine whether certain gender dysphoria treatments including sex reassignment surgery, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers are consistent with widely accepted professional medical standards.
A hearing was held recently to consider a rule change that would prohibit Medicaid reimbursements for treatments including puberty blockers and sex reassignment surgeries.
