Lake County Gazette

Gurnee resident Melanie Finch is questioning a recent presentation Lurie Children's Hospital made at Kildeer Countryside School District 96. 

Lurie Children's Hospital is home to those seeking gender reassignment. 

"During a ‘Parent Night’ Zoom presentation for KCSD96, a representative from Lurie Children's Hospital walked through the April 12th and 13th presentation for our 4th and 5th graders - who will be grouped TOGETHER - boys and girls - during the puberty unit - for the first time," Finch, a Gurnee resident, posted on Facebook. "Dawn Ravine from Lurie, when pressed as to WHY our district is making this change had some interesting answers: the co-ed presentation is easier for kids with IEPs, it de-stigmatizes armpit hair (boys and girls can relate to each other in these new and exciting ways), and my personal favorite - it encourages the boys to have empathy for girls who may be sitting out of gym class because they have their period. It is important for my 10-year-old son to check on the menstruating girls - when they are sitting out of PE class he can bring them water as they may be dehydrated." 

Finch said those reasons were just used to "placate parents."

"Any school that is turning to Lurie Children's Hospital for guidance on the new Sex Ed curriculum is NOT doing it because they want to teach basic health, hygiene, safety and human reproduction," she added. "They are doing it to advance an AGENDA. Lurie is not interested in identifying ‘non-binary’ youth - they want to CREATE them. Transing kids is a cash cow. The sooner they can lump our kids together and tell them that there are 'people with ovaries' and 'people with penises' - the better it is for the puberty blocking business. ‘Never Fear’ is a staple in Lurie Children's arsenal of ‘teaching tools’. Of course, this video wasn't shown last night - but if there wasn't a plan for its implementation it wouldn't exist."

The hospital’s gender assignment team has been spreading its messaging in local schools. "Beyond Binary: Gender in Schools," a training manual offered to schools, provided an academic queer theory on the subject of gender identity that “follows the basic narrative of academic queer theory: white, Western society has created an oppressive gender binary, falsely dividing the world into the categories of man and woman, that has resulted in 'transphobia,' 'cissexism,' and 'systemic discrimination' against racial and sexual minorities,” a Manhattan Institute fellow said, according to Chicago City Wire. 

Subsequently, clinics offering costly medical procedures for children have begun to proliferate. According to pediatrician Michelle Cretella, in the past eight years, the number of gender clinics in the pediatric medical community has increased by 2,000%. 

“Pediatric 'gender clinics' are considered elite centers for affirming children who are distressed by their biological sex," Cretella wrote. "This distressful condition, once dubbed gender identity disorder, was renamed 'gender dysphoria' in 2013. In 2014, there were 24 of these gender clinics, clustered chiefly along the east coast and in California. One year later, there were 40 across the nation.”

Lurie Children’s Hospital has a Gender Development Program in which they provide services as “youth progress through gender identity development.” It offers services for “masculinizing” girls and “feminizing” boys. Clinical services offered include pubertal suppression therapy, menstrual suppression hormone therapy (masculinizing), hormone therapy (feminizing), fertility preservation, and gender-affirming surgery referrals. The program caters only to those under 22 years old. 

The program notes the types of gender identity issues they treat: “Our patients generally fall within one or more of the following groups: Gender expansive or gender non-conforming children: Children and adolescents who exhibit behavior that is not typical of their assigned birth sex. Gender-questioning youth: Children and adolescents who are questioning their gender identities (e.g., “I was born a girl, but I wonder if I’m really a boy?”). Transgender and gender-fluid youth: Children and adolescents who identify as a gender different from their assigned birth sex (e.g., “I was born a girl, but I am really a boy.”)”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is directly involved with funding gender reassignment at Lurie Children's Hospital. The Pritzker Foundation gave Lurie’s Childen’s Hospital $6.45 million in January. That was on top of a previous $15 million.