By Frank Parlato for the Frank Report
US Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s advocacy for the transgender movement, which is financially backed by pharmaceutical companies, is not surprising.
The pharmaceutical industry has been among her top four donors to her reelection campaigns for more than 20 years.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren presents a striking contradiction in her advocacy for Big Pharma.
On the one hand, she does not oppose laws that maintain the age of consent for sex in California at 18, a tacit acknowledgment that premature decisions to engage in sexual activity can have life-altering consequences for young people. She supports the legal drinking and smoking age of 21 in California, apparently recognizing that alcohol and tobacco can have severe effects on the bodies of young adults.
On the other hand, Lofgren advocates for the rights of children and adolescents to undergo hormone treatments and genital and breast removal surgeries, though these decisions have permanent impacts on their bodies and lives, much more profoundly irreversible than the effects of sex, alcohol, or tobacco.
She would be the first to decry a 50-year-old man first grooming and then having sex with a 15-year-old girl because she is too young to consent and has not developed properly yet. Still, she sees no problem with some 50-year-old doctor who will make tens of thousands of dollars arranging for the injection of testosterone, in effect arresting her body’s development and, ultimately, grooming the girl to remove her genitals.
The supporters of Rep. Zoe Lofgren argue that the proposed interventions have the blessings of medical professionals who profit from what they endorse.
Given the long-term effects of these treatments on children are not fully understood, the rush to intervene with treatments demonstrates Lofgren’s support for Big Pharma is worth examining.
The question for Lofgren is not whether children should be allowed to make life-altering decisions about their bodies before they reach an age typically deemed suitable for other significant choices, but how does Big Pharma want her to vote?
Lofgren understands the financial interests at play. The trans industry relies on a “customer base” – in this case, children and adolescents too young to vote, drink alcohol, tobacco, and consent to sex, and too young to be legally held to a contract they sign.
Lofgren’s supporters say rigorous processes are in place to ensure that decisions about “gender transition” are carefully and responsibly made in consultation with medical professionals—the exact professionals with conflicts of interest, given the financial incentives associated with this expanding market.
Rep. Lofgren’s stance seems to support the trans industry, which generally promotes the autonomy of “transgender” children, advocating for hormone treatments starting as young as 13 and surgeries as early as 16.
The treatments involve the use of lucrative and profitable drugs with long-term health impacts.
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues are used to suppress the production of sex hormones like testosterone or estrogen, effectively pausing the physical changes associated with puberty. Lofgren has abandoned the adage that children need to grow for Big Pharma to grow.
For female children (born with XX chromosomes), the industry promotes regular injections of testosterone. Meanwhile, for male children (XY chromosome), the process involves an androgen blocker to block the release of testosterone, along with estrogen.
The long-term side effects of bone density loss, cardiovascular issues, infertility, and cancer are known to the medical community. Many of these results will become apparent later in life, long after the child decided to use these drugs.
Big Pharma’s involvement in transgender children’s rights
Pharmaceutical companies significantly influence American policymaking thanks to their extensive lobbying efforts and campaign contributions. One can often know where Zoe Lofgren stands on an issue simply by looking at her campaign contributors – Big Tech, lawyers doing their bidding, real estate developers, and Big Pharma, her big donors.
Big Pharma invests hundreds of millions in federal lobbying in single election years, outspending every other sector, and Lofgren always pays attention.
She will even break ranks with Democrats and side with Republicans, as in 2016 when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a demonstration project for Medicare Part B on March 11, aimed at reducing taxpayers’ and patients’ costs in response to the doubling of Part B drug spending from $11 billion in 2007 to $22 billion in 2015.
Doctors got commissions of six percent as reimbursement. The project intended to study the impact of changing these reimbursement methods to discourage physicians from using the most expensive drugs and treatments.
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), an industry trade group, spent $6 million opposing the proposal. Some 244 Republicans sided with Big Pharma. Only 66 Democrats sided with Big Pharma. Zoe was proudly on the list of Democrats carrying water for her donors.
You need not be a skeptic to question why lawmakers like Rep. Zoe Lofgren support Big Pharma profiting in the gender transition industry.
Not only that, but Lofgren sits on the Judiciary Committee, which oversees companies like Pfizer Gilead Sciences, Merck, AbbVie, and Johnson & Johnson – all companies with a hand in the trans industry. It is no coincidence that her husband buys stocks in the same companies.
Long Term Effects Should Be Studied
The history of Big Tobacco offers a cautionary tale. For decades, tobacco companies misled Americans about the health risks of smoking, leading to approximately 16 million Americans dying from smoking since the deceptive “Frank Statement” issued by tobacco companies.
These manipulative tactics were not limited to misinformation. Big Tobacco marketed smoking to children. They used tactics ranging from ad campaigns to product placement and even cartoon characters to entice kids into smoking – knowing it was disastrous to their health.
The pharmaceutical industry, particularly those involved in transgender treatments, follows a pattern we’ve seen with Big Tobacco, withholding crucial health information for financial gain.
Big Tobacco’s strategy was about selling products and creating a new generation of consumers. They advertised cigarettes near schools and playgrounds.
As the normalization and acceptance of transgender identities have grown, so has the market for hormone injections and surgeries for children. Big Pharma and their partners in the trans industry, from therapists to physicians to hospitals, much like Big Tobacco, may capitalize on this trend, encouraging early transition in an industry dependent on youth for their customer base.
In the transgender healthcare industry, surgeons, endocrinologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and therapists all advise children on matters that intersect with their financial interests.
Not to mention advocacy groups and research institutions funded by Big Pharma.
As of 2022, estimates suggest 1.64 million people over 13 identify as transgender.
Big Pharma’s involvement revolves around the production and sale of hormones and other medications used in hormone injections of children to develop secondary sexual characteristics that align with the opposite of their biological gender identity.
AbbVie Inc. manufactures Lupron, a drug used to delay puberty in adolescents, and made $726 million on Lupron alone in 2018.
It is no coincidence that Lofgren and her husband bought AbbVie stock. At the same time, she sits on the judiciary committee that oversees the FDA and is privy to inside information on emerging trends and coming approvals.
Some children may need to take the hormones Big Pharma sells for the rest of their lives, especially if they have undergone surgery that removes the organs that produce sex hormones (like ovaries or testes). This lifelong dependency on hormone medications leads to continuous income for pharmaceutical companies, much like tobacco companies.
For Zoe Lofgren and her husband, life is sweet at the top.
