Canadian financial corporation TD Bank quietly donated half a million dollars to a program earlier this year that conducts so-called “gender-affirming” irreversible procedures on minors.

According to a May 2022 newsletter, the financial institution funded $500,000 through Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations to support “gender transitions” through the McMaster Pediatric Gender Diversity Program, which provides medical and mental health services for “trans and gender diverse youth” at the McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario.

“We are aware that adolescent physical and mental health remains a pressing issue,” Sarah Colley, community relations manager for TD, said. “That’s why we are so pleased to provide support to the McMaster Pediatric Gender Diversity Program through the TD Ready Commitment.”

Current laws do not have an age of consent required for gender reassignment surgery, according to a report by True North.

“There is no general age of consent to treatment or counseling,” Canadian Mental Health Association writes. “Instead, the issue depends on whether the young person is capable of consenting.”

In a True North op-ed, Aaron Kimberly, a transexual man and mental health nurse, wrote that misinformation drives transgender people into transition.

“You would think that today’s gender revolution would make things easier on kids like me, who are now often identified as trans. In fact, I did transition when I was 33 and, though it did help me feel more congruent, that decision was largely based on misinformation,” Kimberly wrote.

According to the website, the program “aims to provide medical and mental health services to trans and gender diverse youth as part of a comprehensive program that includes adolescent medicine” and endocrinology — a practice that transgender individuals require to administer hormone treatments such as puberty blockers and testosterone injections.

Other services include “complete medical referrals and legal referrals such as changing gender markers and a person’s legal name on identification.”

TD Bank—one of the ten largest banks in the United States—established the program In 2016 when the demand for transitioning children had not reached the levels seen today. However, program officials say that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, it began receiving three to four weekly referrals.

Funding for the program will provide so-called care to 30 children under 18 to undergo “gender-affirming” services each year, adding to the 60 to 70 minors the program treats yearly.

Now, the number of minors seeking out such services has reached approximately 150 on the waitlist, who reportedly have to wait an estimated time of 24 months to receive an initial assessment.

Dr. Rosheen Grady, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist at the children’s hospital, said in the newsletter she had encountered a parent whose child was “drowning in depression” before finding the program.

Grady’s statement shows that the child entered the program as male and left as female.

“They realized they have a daughter now, and they’re grateful for the resources and support that the program provided to them,” Grady said. “It can be so rewarding to hear that.”

Grady believes intervening in the lives of “gender-diverse” adolescents could “help support youths to be their healthiest selves.”

A former Catholic priest plead guilty to obscenity charges Monday after desecrating his church altar with two dominatrices.

Travis Clark, formerly the pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Pearl River, Louisiana, plead guilty to a single count of felony obscenity during his arraignment Monday, NOLA.com reported. Clark and two women were charged with obscenity and institutional vandalism in 2020 after they were found engaging in sexual activity on the church altar. The two women plead guilty to the vandalism charges earlier this year.

The plea was part of a bargain filed under seal at the request of defense lawyers, the outlet reported. Judge Ellen Creel of Louisiana’s 22nd Judicial District sentenced Clark to a suspended prison term of three years; he will instead serve three years of supervised probation and pay a $1,000 fine. After the criminal charges have concluded, Clark will have to appear again in January for a civil trial, which seeks a permanent injunction against him and the two women to stop them from ever profiting off the crime. Clark’s attorneys said that he already paid $8,000 in restitution to the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

One of Clark’s defense lawyers argued that the defendant should not have to serve active probation. “In this situation it’s an incredibly specific set of facts and conditions that seem very unlikely to ever happen again,” the lawyer said, adding that the purpose of supervised probation is to prevent a repeat offense. The lawyers argued that the two women were more likely than Clark to repeat the same offense. But the judge ordered supervised probation for the two women co-defendants and said she was not inclined to treat one defendant differently than the others.

The two women plead guilty in July of this year to charges of misdemeanor institutional vandalism. They were each sentenced to two years of supervised probation.

The charges stemmed from 2020. On September 30, 2020, police were called to the Church after a passerby saw the two women dressed in corsets performing sex acts on a partially-naked Clark, while a cell phone and camera were recording them, NOLA.com reported at the time. Police arrived on the scene and arrested Clark and the two women, both professional dominatrices; they also seized sex toys, stage lights, the cell phone, and a tripod-mounted camera recording the affair.

The institutional vandalism charge relates to “knowingly vandalizing, defacing, or otherwise damaging property and causing damage valued at over $500 and under $50,000.” The obscenity charge relates to engaging in sex acts in any place “open to the public view.” The altar could reportedly be seen through the windows and glass doors of the church.

Clark was laicized by the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans one day after his arrest. Archbishop Gregory Aymond declared the altar desecrated, and ordered it to be removed, burned, and replaced.

“It is a very tough time right now to be a Catholic in the Archdiocese of New Orleans to say the least. Many people feel anger, betrayal, and disappointment,” Aymond said in a video statement to the faithful in October 2020. “I feel the same way … as do my brother priests. What has happened … is unacceptable, sinful, and cannot be tolerated. Let me be clear: [Clark was] removed from ministry immediately and will NEVER serve again in Catholic ministry.”

“His obscene behavior was deplorable,” Aymond added. “His desecration of the altar in Church was demonic. I am infuriated by his actions.”