Former Vice President Joe Biden, during the ABC News town hall on Thursday night, conveyed a position that can only be described as radical.
He implicitly endorsed allowing eight and ten-year-olds who identify as transgender to transition to their chosen gender – a process that typically begins with puberty blockers then moves to hormone treatment, and then, finally, a gender reassignment (sex change) surgery.
Responding to a question posed by a mother of a child who identifies as transgender, Biden said, “The idea that an eight-year-old child or a ten-year-old child decides, you know, ‘I decided I want to be transgender. That’s what I think I’d like to be a may make my life a lot easier.’ There should be zero discrimination.
He then addresses the murder rate of transgender women of color and then states, “And so I promise you, there is no reason to suggest that there should be any right denied your daughter or daughters, whichever one or two, one your daughter that your other daughter has a right to be in and do none, zero.”
No one says that children diagnosed with gender dysphoria (the word “transgender” is a political construct) have an easy life. It is hard, no doubt.
Watch:
No one wants to see these children mistreated or bullied, nor do we want to see any person murdered. They are created in the image of God and should be treated with dignity and respect.
Two phrases that Biden mentions here that jump out at me.
“There should be zero discrimination.”
George Stephanopoulos, the moderator, should have asked, “what do you consider to be discrimination when it comes to transgender children?”
The other phrase, “there is no reason to suggest that there should be any right denied…”
That begs the question, “what rights?”
Transgender activists push for children and teens to transition to align themselves with the gender with which they identify.
This is certainly considered a “right” within the transgender community that typically starts with puberty blockers and moves on from there.
It’s a position that voters in several swing states reject, as polling in several states released by American Principles Project and SPRY Strategies this summer indicates. They asked voters, “Should children who say they identify as transgender be allowed to undergo physical sex change surgeries or chemical treatments while they are under the age of 18?”
Voters overwhelmingly said no.
- Arizona: 75% NO, 25% YES
- Georgia: 81% NO, 19% YES
- Iowa: 77% NO, 23% YES
- Kentucky: 84% NO, 16% YES
- Michigan: 79% NO, 21% YES
- Montana: 75% NO, 25% YES
- North Carolina: 84% NO, 16% YES
- Pennsylvania: 78% NO, 22% YES
- Texas: 81% NO, 19% YES
- Wisconsin: 77% NO, 23% YES
Gender dysphoria is a condition that causes a person to feel discomfort and distress with their given body. Those who suffer this way should be treated with the utmost compassion. However, there is no scientific evidence that shows that medically altering the body to make it appear more like the opposite sex provides relief. The condition is often the manifestation of underlying issues such as depression, anxiety, or wounds from past abuse. With young children, it could be a phase or a curiosity.
Transgender activists, not medical professionals, drive current treatment protocols backed by ideologically driven studies. For children, treatment includes a regimen of highly experimental drugs and cross-sex hormone treatments, none of which have been approved by the FDA, and they put children at risk. Cross-sex hormones result in a high risk for blood clots, breast cancer, severe liver dysfunction, heart disease, hypertension, uterine cancer, among other health issues such as infertility.
Studies have shown 80-95 percent of children who experience gender dysphoria come to accept the reality of their biological sex by late adolescence.
And children are far too young to understand the long-term consequences of such a life-affirming decision.
So instead of “affirming their gender” and allowing them to make radical changes to their body before they even reach puberty, they should be encouraged to wait and watch instead.
What they do after the age of eighteen, provided it isn’t at taxpayer expense, is up to them.