Biden-Harris HHS Consulted Activist Who Said Parents Should Be Prosecuted For ‘Transphobia’

The Biden-Harris Department of Health and Human Services consulted left-wing transgender activists as it sought to further “LGBTQI accessibility,” with one activist even calling for families that do not accept a child’s gender identity to be prosecuted in a video reviewed by The Daily Wire.

HHS convened the activists late last year for a webinar on “Emerging Practices for Supporting LGBTQI+ Young People Across Human Services Programs.” The project sought to identify “practices that human services agencies, programs, staff, and leaders are using to make human service delivery and prevention more welcoming and accessible for LGBTQI+ young people (ages 10-24),” with a particular focus on the “child welfare and juvenile justice systems.”

One activist, Alexander Roque, was particularly extreme, calling for families who engage in “homophobia or transphobia” to be prosecuted on child abuse charges.

“There are no systems that prosecute or address family rejection as it relates to homophobia or transphobia,” Roque, the president of an LGBT community center and homeless shelter called the Ali Forney Center, complained. “I’ve been beating this drum that homophobia and transphobia is child abuse, and we need to recognize it as such.”

He went on to complain that Child Protective Services has forced him to return children to their families.

“We’ve had so many instances where young people have run away from their homes and have come into our care and we’ve literally had to hand over a young person to their family in front of a child protective worker.”

“I really think that providers who are seeking to represent LGBT youth have to really support a systems change on how systems address homophobia and transphobia. Right now nothing happens to the families,” Roque said, again indicating that he wants parents who do not accept a child’s gender identity to be punished or prosecuted.

Asked by The Daily Wire if he supports prosecuting parents for alleged transphobia, Roque said that he does not “believe that parents should be persecuted nor am I advocating for that.” It is unclear if Roque’s disavowal of persecution means that he does not support prosecution.

The federal bureaucracy has been mobilized to push far-left ideologies by the Biden-Harris administration, which named Admiral Rachel Levine, a man who identifies as a woman, as the Assistant Secretary for Health at the HHS. Levine went on to pressure a medical organization to remove minimum age restrictions for children who undergo medical procedures that seek to change their sex. A new study found that the Biden-Harris administration pushed far-left ideology throughout the government with 500 “DEI actions,” The Daily Wire reported this week.

Another activist criticized families who do not want their child to attempt to transition to the opposite sex, even saying that others may need to step in as a child’s “chosen family.”

“Supporting families is an important form of prevention. Programs are working to support families by using a relationship-based approach that builds connections with families and aims to understand their stage of acceptance with their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” Eli Michaels, a health equity researcher with the research organization Mathematica, said during the webinar. “In some cases that may mean helping youth find and even serving as their chosen family.”

The program was organized by HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Miranda Lynch-Smith, who, according to her resume, focuses on “child welfare policy” and “systematic policy changes that build well-being systems and address race equity.” It was performed in conjunction with Mathematica, a New Jersey-based research organization that frequently contracts with federal agencies.

HHS has repeatedly pushed child transgenderism under the Biden-Harris administration, investigations from The Daily Wire have revealed. The National Institutes of Health, a subagency of the HHS, allocated over $3 million to expand the availability of sex change operations for minors despite hospitals admitting that such medical interventions can result in sterilization.

The department also agreed to spend nearly $700,000 to create “an inclusive teen pregnancy program for transgender boys” and appears to have authorized the use of taxpayer funds to buy chest binders and prosthetic penises for children in the foster care system.

Bureaucrats who pushed the far-left agenda could be ousted from the federal agencies pending the results of the November election, however. Former President Donald Trump has pledged to gut the bureaucracy through executive orders, cutting down the size of the administrative state and firing those who may otherwise work to undermine his policy agenda.

HHS did not respond to a request for comment.