INVESTIGATION: Florida Activists Secretly Ship Free Sex-Change Kits to Children Around the Country
They've also shipped to children pepper spray, knives, steel batons, and tasers for 'self defense'
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PICTURE: Packages containing a free breast binder and other items sent by the Queer Trans Project and obtained by The Epoch Times. (The Epoch Times)
An Epoch Times investigation discovered a Florida activist group secretly sent hundreds of children transgender sex-change kits across the country.
The “Build-A-Queer” kits contain breast binders, condoms, fake male genitalia called “packers,” tape used to bind and hide male genitalia, and more.
Several of these items can potentially harm children, experts have told The Epoch Times. And some of the group’s actions appear to be illegal, at least according to the laws in some states, including Florida, attorneys said.
Until recently, the group’s giveaways included “Trans Self-Defense Kits” which contained weapons, including knives and tasers. The items were available to children and others who applied online, according to Cielo Sunsarae, director of the Florida group named Queer Trans Project (QTP).
The group’s website has had 90,000 website visits so far this year, Sunsarae told The Epoch Times. QTP’s TikTok account has an online following of 43,000.
“All of our items are for individuals of all ages,” Sunsarae wrote in a text to The Epoch Times. The group’s website posts no restrictions based on age or a requirement for parental consent.
PICTURE: Packages containing a free breast binder and other items sent by the Queer Trans Project and obtained by The Epoch Times. (The Epoch Times)
So far, QTP has mailed 959 kits to recipients in every state except North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Montana, Sunsarae said. The group hopes to double that amount this year.
Most kit recipients are “youth,” said Sunsarae, a biological woman who identifies as a man.
The Epoch Times obtained kits sent out by the group.
Free Weapons for Transgenders
The group says it has so far mailed 20 free “Trans Self-Defense Kits,” each including a knife, a steel baton, pepper spray, a taser, and instructions on how to use the weapons. The kits were available to recipients of all ages, including children, Sunsarae said.
Government statistics suggest 82 percent of transgender-identifying individuals have seriously considered killing themselves. About 40 percent have attempted suicide, a study published by the National Institutes of Health shows.
Priority was given to black prostitutes, and five prostitutes received kits, Sunsarae said. A government study found that prostitutes die at about three times the normal rate. Nevada is the only state that has not made prostitution illegal.
The weapons kits, Sunsarae said, were provided by Thorn, a Chicago-based activist group that provides “free self defense tools prioritized for black and brown trans women in Chicago,” according to its Instagram page.
The QTP website stopped offering “self-defense” items before the monthly giveaway in March. The website suggests the stock of free weapons won’t be gone forever.
“After careful consideration, and with bittersweet feelings, we are discontinuing the aforementioned programs. While we are pausing some of our programs at this time, it does not necessarily mean that they are gone forever,” QTP’s website states, referring to the weapons kits as well as a program where it gave away $6,000 in cross-sex hormones, transgender clothing, and breast amputation surgery funding.
“We understand that these programs have been invaluable to our community in the past and we are committed to exploring ways to bring them back in the future.”
Breaking the Law?
Florida, where QTP is based, has banned child sex-change hormone use or child sex-reassignment surgery through its state medical board rules. A measure to make that a law in the state has been passed by the Florida Legislature and is expected to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
But Sunsarae isn’t worried.
“Anything they could do on the governmental level, we’re gonna fight back at the organization level,” Sunsarae said.
“They can do whatever they want. But as a nonprofit organization—and it’s a good thing that we don’t technically have our 501(c)(3) status—you guys can’t come for us.”
Experts asked by The Epoch Times, however, say that QTP’s operations break laws.
“Under Chapter 847 of Florida law, it is illegal to sell or distribute any material or product that is harmful to minors, including sexual devices, pornography, or other adult products, to anyone under the age of 18,” said Florida attorney and medical freedom advocate Jeff Childers.
The packers offered to minors in the Build-A-Queer kits are manufactured by a sexual device website, which suggests they’d be illegal, he said.
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Christian legal activism group Liberty Counsel, also believes QTP is breaking the law by sending the kits to minors.
Items shipped “cross the line” legally, Staver said. And sending weapons to prostitutes likely is illegal, he said.
“They’re equipping people with weapons who are engaging in illegal activity already,” he said. “This group ought to be shut down.”
Shipping items in a way to disguise them also creates legal jeopardy, Childers said.
“I would also guess it is illegal to use deceptive packaging or labeling to conceal the nature of the products being sold under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act,” said Childers. This could make what QTP is doing illegal.
And sending children weapons creates criminal and civil liability, Childers said. Further, he said, “It’s insane.”
From state to state, laws on sending sexual material differ.
Kansas makes mailing obscene devices to minors a class A non-personal misdemeanor and potential felony. Many other states ban “corrupting the morals” of minors.
“That’s very broad language, arguably vague language, yet could potentially be used for prosecution purposes against what this organization is doing,” said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute.
Federal law prohibits sending obscene material to a minor by mail.
Of all 50 state attorneys general contacted by The Epoch Times, only the Alaska attorney general was willing to comment on QTP’s actions.
“Within the context of the criminal law and focusing on the specific questions asked, there is no statute that prohibits the single act of mailing the items you mentioned to a minor,” spokeswoman Patty Sullivan, of the Alaska Attorney General’s office, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
It’s illegal in Alaska to give a minor pepper spray or a stun gun, she wrote.
Sunsarae declined to comment on concerns that the actions of her group are illegal.
Hiding Transgender Items from Parents
In an Instagram video, a QTP volunteer hides a breast binder inside T-shirt packaging and tucks makeup into a plushie, offering assurance that items are disguised to keep from being detected.
Sunsarae offers advice on how to hide kits from parents in a YouTube video.
The items included in kits sent to children can harm them, studies show.
Special tape to secure male genitalia between the legs—a practice called tucking—may cause skin infections, itching, rash, testicular pain, and penile pain, according to a National Library of Medicine survey of 139 transgender individuals.
The National Library of Medicine found that, in at least one case, tucking temporarily damaged male fertility.
Tucking can cause urinary tract infections, urine flow problems, and twisted testicles, and can cut off circulation to the genitals, according to Oregon Health and Science University.
A breast binder compresses breasts to create a more masculine appearance. Studies link extended binder use to long-term harms including rib fractures, overheating, skin irritation, pain, and shortness of breath.
Yet QTP followers are eager to receive the kits. And the group’s social media pages reveal teens committed to hiding their “gender transition” from parents.
Those who cite studies against wearable sex-change devices are “cherry-picking,” Sunsarae said.
“So if binders aren’t working for this dude, they can do some trans tape, or they can wear a sports bra,” Sunsarae said, referring to girls who want to live as boys.
Arkansas state Rep. Robin Lundstrum, a Republican, called the QTP actions “nauseating.”
“When they’re in immense amounts of pain, the Queer Trans Project won’t be there with them to pay these bills and to hold their hand in the hospital,” Lundstrum said of child recipients of the kits.
A 4XL breast binder, sent from the Queer Trans Project. Photographed April 25, 2023. (The Epoch Times)
Florida state Sen. Clay Yarborough—a Republican from Jacksonville, home of QTP—sponsored bills in this year’s legislative session in his state to ban “gender-affirming care” for minors, to punish people and businesses allowing children to attend drag shows, and to expand Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education bill.
He declined to comment when asked about QTP.
The U.S. Postal Service and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office also did not respond to requests for comment about the organization’s actions.
Funding Sources
Fundraising and volunteers drive the Queer Trans Project, Sunsarae said.
Other donations come from these groups: the Peace Development Fund, a group that donated $6.1 million to various groups in 2022; the Trans Justice Funding Project, which had donated $8.3 million to a wide range of groups as of 2022; the Groundswell Fund, which granted $100 million to left-wing activism in 2021; and the Campaign for Southern Equality, a grant-giving group that received $1.5 million in 2021 and gave away $193,600.
From these groups, the Queer Trans Project received $35,000 in 2022, according to its financial report.
The organization also received support from Flavnt Streetwear, of Austin, Texas; Maine-based TransTape; California’s SockSmith; LGBT sports league Stonewall Sports; GC2B; Florida-based Shallow Graves Co., a coffee and T-shirt retailer; Queer Market Jax, of Jacksonville; and Southern Roots, a Florida cafe.
The LGBT pilot group Elevated Access also partners with QTP to provide free flights to transgender-identifying people to places where they can receive sex-change surgery. The organization claims to have more than 1,200 volunteer member pilots committed to the mission.
Elevated Access requires parental consent to fly minors to sex-change surgery, Sunsarae said.
The Queer Trans Project is part of the nonprofit American Trans Resource Hub, Sunsarae said.
The California-based organization started in 2021, and hasn’t filed a tax return, charity watchdog ProPublica records.
That’s because the director is in college and likely hasn’t had time to update the nonprofit, Sunsarae said.
