LGBTQ Group Offering Free ‘Chest Binders’ Without Parental Consent Claims Requests from Teens Overwhelming

A “transgender-affirming” group that provides free chest binders to children as young as 13 without parental consent says it is overwhelmed with requests for the breast flatteners from teen girls who claim they identify as boys.

“It’s become such a need,” said Binders for Confident Kids (b4ck) Founder Elizabeth Haley, according to the New York Post. “There are organizations across the country that are doing what I’m doing — providing binders to people who need them, because it’s so much of a safer way to bind.”

“All binders are on back order,” states an announcement on b4ck’s website.

The founder’s message also states:

As a parent of a transgender son (assigned female at birth), I understand on a very personal level how crippling dysphoria can be for a young person, and how much a compression binder can be a self-confidence boost!

As my son got older, it became more and more apparent that he wasn’t comfortable in his own body. It became super important to make sure that he was not only safe, but felt good about himself too. The first time I got him a binder, his face lit up with relief.

This moment is one I long to replicate for kids all over the country and the world – even if they or their parents can’t afford to buy a binder for themselves.

The Post reported that while roughly three dozen groups nationwide offer free chest binders to teens as young as 14, Haley’s group will send them to even 13-year-olds without parental consent.

“At the age of 13, children are allowed to get on the internet and buy whatever they want,” Haley rationalized. “They can get on Amazon and buy something. That’s the age that the federal government says that a child has been allowed to make decisions for themselves as far as the internet goes.”

Haley went on to tell the Post that rarely have parents intervened and asked to have their child’s order cancelled.

“Unfortunately, a lot of times, parents don’t even know their child is trans or seeking assistance, and so they’re not able to give us a lot of information,” she explained. “A lot of times, they’re having it mailed to a friend’s house. We’re not involved in that. We just have an order form.”

LGBTQ activist organizations have pushed the narrative in K-12 schools and elsewhere that parents who do not affirm their child’s transition to another gender are their enemy and, therefore, should not even be notified of a claim of confusion about gender.

The Chico Unified School District in California, for example, recently voted to maintain its existing “parental secrecy policy” of not notifying or seeking consent of parents of K-12 children who claim a different gender.

The school board voted, 3-2, to continue the policy immediately after one mother, Aurora Regino, told board members her 11-year-old daughter had been helped to transition to male by school personnel, without notification, despite the fact that her daughter had asked her mother to be informed.

Regino has filed a lawsuit against the school district.

Another parent, Amber Lavigne of Newcastle, Maine, has also filed a federal lawsuit against the Great Salt Bay School Board and the Great Salt Bay Community School after dissatisfaction with her school district’s response to the mother’s discovery in December of a chest binder in her 13-year-old daughter’s belongings.

According to the lawsuit filed by the Goldwater Institute, Lavigne’s daughter told her a school counselor provided her with the chest binder and that the school had been calling her daughter by another name and pronouns.

The lawsuit notes that, when Lavigne decided to withdraw her daughter from the school in order to begin homeschooling, “[a]lmost immediately afterwards … Plaintiff was visited by agents of the Maine Office of Child and Family Services.”

“These agents informed Plaintiff that they had received an anonymous report that Plaintiff was emotionally abusive towards” [her child], the lawsuit asserts. “The investigation was completed on January 13, 2023, with a finding that the information obtained by the investigation did not support a finding of neglect or abuse.”

While Lavigne’s lawsuit argues parents have the right to direct their child’s education and healthcare, LGBTQ activists and their allies claim schools are required to protect student privacy – even from parents.

Print Place, a sponsor and donor to Binders for Confident Kids, posts the following message on the b4ck site:

Many transgender young people experience family rejection, bullying and harassment, or feel unsafe for simply being who they are – all of which can be added risk factors for suicide … How can we help? Compression binders significantly assist in giving “passing privilege” (the ability to be socially regarded as the gender that an individual identifies with) as well as minimizing dysphoria. By providing monetary donations or used binders, you can assist a young person overcome the statistics and find confidence and affirmation in their gender.

Chest-binding, nevertheless, comes with risks, as an article, cited on Haley’s website, states.

“[E]ven a dedicated binder is not without risk, and binding improperly or for too long can lead to chest and back pain, rib bruising and fractures, shortness of breath, overheating, and skin damage,” reported Pride in Practice in 2019.

– – –

Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Confident Trans Kid” by B4CK.org.