Children's hospital in Washington, D.C., bombarded with threats after Libs Of TikTok leaked audio

Marissa Higgins

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday September 01, 2022 · 1:52 PM PDT

2022/09/01 · 13:52

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 03: Teal Quinn (R) and her non-binary child Linden Sladen (L) demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court Building on May 03, 2022 in Washington, DC. In a leaked initial draft majority opinion obtained by Politico, and authenticated by Chief Justice John Roberts, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey should be overturned, which would end federal protection of abortion rights across the country. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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Daily Kos recently covered the disturbing threats of violence—including an actual bomb threat—folks at Boston Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, faced because of extremist right-wing hysteria over trans rights. The hospital offers safe, age-appropriate, gender-affirming health care to trans people, including youth of certain ages. That treatment might include, for example, puberty blockers. But it certainly doesn’t include genital surgeries on toddlers, as many right-wingers were suggesting. Right-wingers including the notorious Libs of TikTok.

Sadly, this isn’t the only hospital to suffer from an onslaught of queerphobia. Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., is also suffering. As reported by LGBTQ+ outlet them, Chaya Raichik—the person previously identified as the user behind the Libs of TikTok account—called the hospital pretending to be a parent seeking information on gender-affirming surgery for a 16-year-old. The recording seems to include telephone operators for the hospital telling Raichik that the hospital has offered hysterectomies on children younger than 16.

The hospital denies providing hysterectomies for people under 18. A hospital spokesperson says the information provided on the call was simply inaccurate; per The Washington Post, they aren’t disputing the accuracy of the call itself (meaning it doesn’t seem to be edited) but the information provided was just wrong.

But that simple explanation apparently isn’t enough to change the minds of folks who are convinced young children are being forced to transition before they understand how to read or write.

Ariana Ahmadi Perez, the spokesperson for the hospital, clarified in a statement that no one who was “secretly recorded by this activist group” actually provides care to patients. They went on to explicitly state: “We do not and have never performed gender-affirming hysterectomies for anyone under the age of 18.”

They also went on to say that since the recording was shared online, the hospital has been overrun by threatening phone calls and emails. Folks on social media have shared some truly frightening threats, ranging from wanting to see physicians put in jail to being put in a woodchipper.

Per The Daily Dot, it seems likely this fiasco is what resulted in the Libs of TikTok Twitter account being suspended, but we don’t know for sure. I, for one, would be happy to see this account (and those like it) be permanently banned, but even then, we’d still have to show up and advocate on behalf of our trans peers in this ongoing fight for equality and respect.

Children's hospital in Washington, D.C., bombarded with threats after Libs Of TikTok leaked audio

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