By Edie Heipel
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 24, 2022 / 16:11 pm
In an interview with a controversial transgender activist Sunday, President Biden condemned states for restricting sex change procedures on children.
In the segment aired by progressive news outlet Now This News, Biden sat down for a one-on-one interview with social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Mulvaney, a 25-year-old San Diego native, has gone viral on TikTok for documenting his transition from being male into what he calls “girlhood.” Scores of women have accused Mulvaney of “appropriating” femininity and “making a mockery” out of womanhood.
“The most offensive part of Mulvaney’s act is not that it debases women to the lowest stereotypes,” Spectator journalist Amber Athey wrote this week. “It’s that women are being told to look truth dead in the eyes and then spit in its face.”
Biden calls bans on gender procedures ‘immoral’
Mulvaney opened the interview by saying, “Mr. President, this is my 221st day of publicly transitioning,” to which Biden’s response was, “God love you.”
Mulvaney asked Biden if he thought states should be allowed to ban “gender-affirming health care,” such as puberty blockers and irreversible sex-change surgeries.
“I am extremely privileged to live in a state that allows me access to the resources I need, and that decision is just between me and my doctors, but many states have lawmakers that feel like they can involve themselves in this very personal process,” Mulvaney said. “Do you think states should have a right to ban gender-affirming health care?”
In reply, Biden declared, “I don’t think any state or anybody should have the right to do that as a moral question. As a legal question, I just think it’s wrong.”
Multiple states across the country have restricted or are considering laws to restrict access to sex-transition procedures on children, including puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and irreversible and risky sex-change surgeries.
The president denounced states that have passed bills outlawing “gender-affirming” treatments for minors, calling the action “immoral.”
“No state should be able to do that in my view,” Biden said.
“I feel very, very strongly that you should have every single solitary right including use of your gender identity bathrooms, but public,” he added.
Mulvaney then said that he felt like Republicans had “blam[ed] society’s downfall” on transgender people.
“How can Democratic leaders be more effective in advocating for us trans people in our families in our lives and our opportunities?” Mulvaney asked the president.
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Biden responded: “I’m not being facetious when I say this, but being seen with people like you. No, I mean it … people fear what they don’t know,” he said.
The White House did not respond to CNA’s request for comment.
Europe rolls back gender care for kids
The president’s remarks come as several European countries continue to scale back access to gender-affirming treatments and surgeries on minors.
Last week, England’s National Hospital System (NHS) drafted new guidance saying it would be issuing stricter oversight on providing “gender-affirming” care to children with gender dysphoria.
According to Reuters, which obtained a draft of the guidelines, the guidance calls for “local authorities to be alerted in some cases where young people have obtained puberty blockers and hormone therapies on the private market.”
The guidelines include various safeguarding protocols to ensure “the safety and well-being” of children who want access to puberty blockers and hormone treatments.
The news comes in response to criticism from “practitioners who said it rushed people onto medication,” Reuters reported.
It follows the closure of what was the world’s largest transition clinic for minors, the U.K.’s Tavistock Clinic, which was shut down this year after an independent review and complaints from patient families.
England is not the only country to have updated its protocols for treating children with gender dysphoria. Finland and Sweden have reversed their guidelines on gender care, with Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW) stating in July that “the risks of puberty suppressing treatment [with] gender-affirming hormonal treatment currently outweigh the possible benefits.”
