(LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian city forced the removal of billboards warning about the dangers of gender mutilation surgery in minors that were placed by a pro-family advocacy group after pressure from a local “Pride” group.
In a press release dated September 6, the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada noted that a series of billboards placed in St. Catharines, Ontario, by its local Southern Ontario chapter were taken down.
“A series of billboards urging that children be protected from harmful, irreversible medical interventions were taken down today from the side of the QEW near the Garden City Skyway after Pride Niagara pressured the Mayor of St. Catharines to intervene,” ARPA stated.
According to ARPA, St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe contacted the advertising company that placed the signs after pressure from LGBT activist group Pride Niagara.
ARPA Canada executive director Mike Schouten blasted the move, saying it was a “troubling” course of action by Mayor Siscoe, especially considering the billboards were on private property.
“What is particularly troubling about Mayor Siscoe’s actions is that it shows that even billboards on private property are not safe from political censorship,” he said.
“The City isn’t even responsible for the property these billboards are located on, yet Mayor Siscoe still went out of his way to stop people from sharing this important message.”
The ads were planned to run for 12 weeks, but only lasted two days. The billboards featured a simple message noting ARPA, which was one “opposing medical transitions for minors.”
The opposition to gender mutilation surgery for minors, ARPA noted, “reflects growing concern from medical experts and parents about the serious, lifelong consequences of these procedures.”
The ads were placed as part of a national campaign hosted at LetKidsBe.ca, which is funded 100 percent by donations to local ARPA chapters.
According to Schouten, the campaign is about “protecting vulnerable children.”
“The decision to silence this message under pressure from activists and political leaders is deeply concerning,” he said.
“Instead of shutting down dialogue, we should be engaging with the evidence and listening to those who have been harmed by these interventions.”
According to ARPA, its mission is to “educate, equip, and encourage Reformed Christians to political action, and to bring a biblical perspective to our civil authorities.”
APRA has faced similar situations, and the latest forced advertisement removal comes only weeks after Hamilton, Ontario Mayor Andrea Horwath ordered the same billboards on city property to be taken down.
ARPA is now taking the City of Hamilton to court.
Evidence shows that people who undergo what are known as so-called “gender transitioning” procedures are more likely to commit suicide than those who are not given such irreversible surgeries.
In addition to catering to a false reality that one’s sex can be changed, transgender surgeries and drugs have been linked to permanent physical and psychological damage, including cardiovascular diseases, loss of bone density, cancer, strokes and blood clots, and infertility.
Meanwhile, a study on the side effects of “sex change” surgeries discovered that 81 percent of those who have undergone them in the past five years reported experiencing pain simply from normal movements in the weeks and months that followed, among many other negative side effects.
Studies have also found that 80 percent of children suffering gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence.
