“Gender and Sexuality Alliance” (GSA) clubs at public and private schools nationwide encourage teen girls with gender dysphoria to “bind” their breasts, according to GSA resources reviewed by the Daily Caller.
Schools in Minnesota, Maryland, California, Illinois and Massachusetts are among the hundreds of schools that offer GSA clubs that promote “chest binding” — the practice of crushing healthy breast tissue — to teenage girls. Some schools, including Waltham High School in Massachusetts, raise money to purchase chest binders for teen girls who cannot afford them.
“Need a chest binder, but can’t buy one? The GSA will raise money and order one for you,” a GSA club flier reads.
Screenshot/Waltham High School
The GSA club at Chaska High School in Minnesota includes links to a pros and cons list for different types of chest binders. The guidelines also note that teens who don’t have access to binders can wear two sports bras to compress their breasts.
“As always, try not to use the double sports bra method for over 6 hours! It’s not as compressing as professional binders,” the guidelines read.
A resource guide for Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland states that its chest binding resource is designed for LGBTQ youth aged 13-24. A separate resource for St. Vincent School in Los Angeles provided students with advice on how to breathe with chest binders.
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Chicago Public Schools informed students that “using a binder or tucking” — the practice of concealing male genitalia — “during physical education can have a significant positive impact on students’ mental health.” In the same guide, the district noted that binding “can also pose physical risks or limitations on the student’s body.”
Screenshot/Chicago Public Schools
Waltham High School, Chaska High School, Montgomery County Public Schools, St. Vincent School and Chicago Public School did not respond to the Caller’s inquiries into whether school-wide protocols exist for students who bind their chests.
Analysis from the Cleveland Clinic indicates that there is minimal data to determine the safety of chest binding practices. Side effects of chest binding include, but are not limited to, musculoskeletal issues such as “loss of muscle mass, postural changes, rib fractures, and shoulder popping.” (RELATED: University School Of Nashville’s Gender Sexuality Club Promoted Vanderbilt’s Gender Clinic To High Schoolers)
“There’s currently little data for doctors to draw from when it comes to the overall safety of chest binding,” Cleveland Clinic reports. “The data is small. There has simply not been a whole lot published in scientific or medical literature about the experiences and outcomes of binding,” Cleveland Clinic transgender health expert Dr. Henry Ng said.
Erika Sanzi, the director of outreach for the concerned parent organization “Parents Defending Education,” told the Caller that “history will not be kind” to educators who promote chest binding.
“One wonders how on Earth state Departments of Education and individual school districts plan to defend their decision to promote breast binding for adolescent girls,” Saznis said. “Schools are so far out of their lane that they are willing to help young girls get started down a path of rib bruising and fractures and shortness of breath so they can masculinize their chests.”