On the matter of protecting minors, the public is already there.
On the matter of protecting minors, the public is already there.
F ive years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine that medical and surgical alterations to the sex characteristics of minors would be a major issue at a Republican presidential debate. Yet on Wednesday night, at the fourth GOP primary debate, four of the remaining candidates argued among themselves about how far the state should go in intervening to protect children from these harms.
In the United States, 5 percent of people under 30 identify as transgender or nonbinary; compare that with 0.3 percent of Americans over 50. I’ve written before about why I think social contagion is the most convincing explanation of this discrepancy. But whatever the reason, many of these young people are being exposed to life-altering medical and surgical treatments before they can legally drive, vote, get a tattoo, or buy a gun or alcohol. If we can impose these laws to protect children from their immature selves, why not a ban on trans drugs and surgeries as well?
To get a sense of the stakes, consider that girls as young as 13 have had double mastectomies solely on the basis that they think they are boys; boys as young as 15 have had their penises removed on the basis that they think they are girls; and an 18-year-old young woman can walk into Planned Parenthood with her theory about what really explains her eating disorder, childhood trauma, or even the ordinary struggles of adolescence — “being trans”— and walk out with a testosterone prescription the same day.
The president of the United States describes efforts to curb this madness — along with efforts to keep men out of women’s sports, services, and spaces — as “close to sinful.” To counter this, the ideal Republican presidential candidate needs to match Democratic trans activists in strength and determination.
When asked why he does not favor bans on transgender medical treatments for minors, Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, said the issue comes down to parental rights. He said that while he thinks pursuing these procedures is “a very, very dangerous thing to do,” that’s his “opinion as a parent.” A different parent might have a different opinion, and it’s not for lawmakers to decide.
The moderator, Megyn Kelly, pushed back: “When you were governor in 2017, you signed a law that required new guidelines for schools dealing with transgender students. Those guidelines required schools to accept a child’s preferred gender identity even if the minor’s parents objected. And it said there is no duty for schools to notify parents if their minor son or daughter changes their gender identity.” Christie denied this, saying that Kelly was “simply wrong,” and he had already left office before the guidance was issued and regulated. In fact, he did sign such a law while governor.
Regardless, Christie is missing the point. It’s true that some Republicans have gone after parents. For instance, Texas governor Greg Abbott directed his attorney general’s office to investigate parents of trans-identifying children. But that wasn’t Kelly’s initial question. The laws she was referring to prevent doctors from removing healthy body parts from minors and prescribing drugs that result in sterility. These don’t interfere with parents’ rights but with doctors’ “rights” to profit from medical malpractice.
Ron DeSantis chimed in that “as a parent, you do not have the right to abuse your kids.” He argued that these clinical practices constitute “mutilating these minors,” which is why he has been aggressive in legislating against them in the state of Florida.
Nikki Haley and DeSantis then fired shots at each other about their records on bathroom bills. Haley argued that ten years ago this was a matter affecting only a “handful of kids,” and it could be dealt with sufficiently without government intervention, though the issue has since “exploded.” DeSantis characterized Haley as opposing his ban on transgender drugs and surgeries for minors. In June, Haley told CBS that “the law should stay out of” these medical decisions and parents should decide. She has since said that she doesn’t think these treatments should be available for those under 18 years old. Haley said DeSantis was being “hypocritical” in his attack because, when he was running for governor in 2018, he said bathroom bills were “not a good use of our time.” DeSantis replied that he “signed a bathroom bill in Florida, so that’s obviously not true.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, eager to outdo everyone, said that “the North Star” is that “transgenderism is a mental-health disorder.” He argued that DeSantis ought to take this further, citing Reagan’s decision to change the federal drinking age to 21, saying, “We can do the same thing when it comes to banning genital mutilation and chemical castration.”
Obviously one person who wasn’t there to answer on the issue was Trump, who, as I’ve written before, is personally unreliable on the issue, though his administration worked tirelessly to advance sex-based policies and protections.
Ramaswamy and DeSantis are on the right side of the party, whereas Christie and Haley still equivocate on the issue as though nothing had changed in the last five years. What to do is simple: Ban the medical malpractice known as “gender affirmation” for minors, require schools to be transparent with parents, get trans ideology out of the curriculum, defend the First Amendment rights of those skeptical of transgender ideology, get men out of women’s sports and spaces, and base laws on sex (not “gender identity”).
There are disagreements about the exact roles of state and federal government as well as about how different laws should be worded. But compared with abortion, the legal blueprint for Republican transgender policy is straightforward and popular. It’s unlikely that any of those on the stage are going to be the Republican nominee, let alone president, but compromise on this issue ought to be disqualifying.