Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘Chilling Effect’: DCNF Reporter Details Harris VP Frontrunner’s Push To Enforce Child Sex Changes

Charlie Kirk and Megan Brock

A Daily Caller News Foundation reporter described the radical position Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, a potential running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris, took to pressure medical professionals to provide sex changes for kids Monday.

Shapiro’s gubernatorial administration collaborated with the Trevor Project, an LGBT advocacy group, to go after counselors and other medical professionals who would not participate in child sex change procedures for students, accusing them of engaging in “conversion therapy.” DCNF Investigative Reporter Megan Brock appeared on The Charlie Kirk Show to discuss Shapiro’s use of state licensing boards to target counselors, nurses, doctors and therapists.

“Gov. Shapiro’s administration pressured state licensing boards to adopt the policy statement that is going to make it unprofessional conduct for nurses, doctors, therapists to put children on any pathway other than to affirm their so-called ‘gender identity,’” Brock told host Charlie Kirk.

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“Because the Pennsylvania state legislature is divided, there’s been no success in passing a state law to ban this alleged ‘conversion therapy,’” Brock added, “So instead, Shapiro administration worked with activists, specifically the Trevor Project, to pressure these boards to adopt a policy statement that specifically said, if you’re a counselor or nurse or doctor and you’re trying to help a child resolve their gender distress instead of putting them on a medicalization pathway, you are allegedly converting their gender identity, and that is an offense punishable by a state board, and that punishment could possibly include revoking your license.”

Shapiro, a top contender to be Harris’s running mate, bypassed the legislative deadlock by working with the Trevor Project to push state licensing boards to enact the measures, which became effective June 8.

“This action by the boards is more binding than if we had a state law, because the decision makers are the professionals and their own peers, so they’re the ones that are saying this is not up to standard, and they’re the ones that could impact the discipline,” Perry Monastero, who listed the Trevor Project as a pro bono client on his LinkedIn page, said in May, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Brock also detailed how the policy statements effectively bypassed the constitutional processes, noting that the state boards were political appointees of Shapiro and confirmed by the Pennsylvania State Senate.

“Just the threat alone of potentially losing your ability to work and provide for your family is going to have a chilling effect on the entire profession,” Brock said.