Sen. Bob Casey celebrates $400,000 in federal aid for PA charity that provides child sex changes

Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) on Thursday celebrated his securing of $400,000 in the 2024 fiscal year spending package to go toward the Philadelphia LGBTQ nonprofit the Mizzoni Center. 

"This community project funding will modernize the center’s basic equipment, like vitals machines or security systems, or air conditioning. It will also enable Mazzoni to purchase a generator," Casey said during a visit to the center, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. 

"I’m just grateful to be here during Pride month to be able to announce some good news from Washington, which doesn’t happen every week," he added. 

The center celebrated the federal funds, saying that it would go toward building upgrades. 

"Today, Senator Bob Casey announced with Mazzoni Center leadership a $400K congressional appropriation for building upgrades, including a building generator to protect refrigerated pharmaceuticals and vaccines. We thank the Senator for supporting LGBTQ+ health and wellness," the center posted. 

The center states that its mission is to "provide quality comprehensive health and wellness services in an LGBTQ-focused environment, while preserving the dignity and improving the quality of life of the individuals we serve." 

According to the Daily Mail, the center provides puberty blockers and hormone therapy for patients including minors, as testing for sexually transmitted diseases and counseling and health education. Additionally, the group connects patients to surgeons who perform sex changes. 

The center also has the Pediatric & Adolescent Comprehensive Transgender Services program, which provides a "collaborative approach to care" that "draws on the input and expertise of multiple departments within Mazzoni Center - medical providers, social workers, therapists, and legal staff - to provide the best possible care for clients." 

The group hosts the annual Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference, which will take place this year in September. The conference previously featured panels on "Bigger D*ck Energy: Life After Masculinizing," "The Adolescent Pathway: Preparing Young People for Gender-Affirming Care," and "The Ins and Outs of Masturbation Sleeves." 

In 2017, the conference came under fire after it canceled events on de-transitioning. Panels titled, "Alternate ways of working with gender dysphoria" and "Detransition: A panel discussion," were both canceled because "when a topic becomes controversial, such as this one has turned on social media, there is a duty to make sure that the debate does not get out of control at the conference itself," the group said at the time. 

"This was detracting from our overall mission of the conference, to provide an accessible and respectful environment that centers the experiences of the transgender and gender non-conforming/non-binary (GNC/NB) community," the post continued.  

Casey in March withdrew his request for a $1 million allocation for the Pennsylvania-based William Way LGBT Community Center after the group’s ties to kink and BDSM parties were revealed. 

A spokesperson for Casey said at the time, "Senator Casey has been a leader and ally in the fight to protect LGBTQ rights in the U.S. Senate and will continue to support the LGBTQ community in the Commonwealth." 

"He believes that consenting adults have the right to do whatever they want in their free time, but these types of appropriations projects warrant the highest level of scrutiny on behalf of taxpayers. Senator Casey withdrew his request for federal funding when new information about the third-party use of the facility emerged."