TWIBS: Liars on Stage Attack Trans Youth at the Republican Debate
We’re all just killing time before Trump wraps up the nomination.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
On Wednesday, the Republican nominees for the 2024 presidential election took to the stage at the University of Alabama to bleat at each other. To the surprise of nobody, a very heated segment of the debate was devoted to… The Trans Question.
Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy were asked by Megyn Kelly whether or not trans children deserve to exist.
Okay, fine, the actual question that kicked off this portion of the debate was whether or not Chris Christie is “out of step” because he doesn’t support a blanket ban on trans youth medical care, while mischaracterizing that care as “surgeries done on minors [that] involve cutting off body parts.”
Megyn is, of course, wrong. Just wrong as fuck. Like most of her vile buddies, she doesn’t know anything true about medical transition, and learning would hurt her bottom line.
This really pisses me off. I want these children to be left the hell alone so that they can sort out their identities in safe, supportive environments without presidential candidates talking about turning up the child suicide dial to eleven on national television.
Gender affirming care for trans adults and youth is supported by almost every major medical organization in the world. This care isn’t new or untested. We know it saves the lives of adults and children. When it comes to trans youth, social transition is the first step, potentially followed by puberty blockers—which are very safe, and the effects of which are entirely reversible—and then, if necessary, cross-sex hormones. If and when surgery is discussed and performed, it is almost always on consenting adults who have reached the age of majority.
Never young children.
Back to the debate, Christie rebuts by suggesting that “Republicans believe in less government,” which hasn't been true since before I was born. His broad stance on trans youth, however, is surprisingly supportive: He believes that the government, in this instance, has no right to tell parents how to raise their children. He speaks out against government overreach, saying “the minute you start to take those rights away from parents, you don’t know… what rights are going to be taken away next.”
I agree! With Chris Christie! That’s upsetting, but I appreciate that he found at least one stance to take that doesn’t make him look like a buffoon.
Ron DeSantis immediately chimes in to suggest that gender affirming care is “[abusing] your kids,” and “cutting off their genitals.”
The crowd cheers stupidly at this blatantly untrue bullshit.
He also references European countries “shutting down” gender affirming care, which has become a popular talking point among transphobes of late. It is, like most of the bile and garbage that erupts from their perpetually agape pie holes, simply not true. (Politico agrees.)
Next up, DeSantis quibbles with Nikki Haley about whether or not she killed a bathroom bill in South Carolina, even though she has always been staunchly anti-transgender. She goes on to insist that “biological boys shouldn’t be in girls' sports,” which she describes as “the women’s issue of our time.”
I’m so sorry, but I just don’t have enough space here to be angry about that. So, imagine I went on a long tirade about how fucking wrong she is. (I probably would have talked shit about Riley Gaines again anyway, so this is in our best interest.)
Ensuring that he isn’t left out of the verbal diarrhea orgy, Vivek Ramaswamy lets us know that “identity politics” are “a deeper cancer in American life.” He says that caring about your identity, your sex or religion, is anti-American. At this precise moment in the debate, Emma Lazarus hits 3,000 RPM spinning in her grave.
He also describes “transgenderism”—words are hard, I get it—as “a mental health issue,” which is technically correct. It’s pathologized and treated like any health concern in the modern world. You don’t feel great, you talk to a doctor, they prescribe medicine and you feel better. He never explains why this process needs federal intervention, but he does contrast medical transition to smoking and drinking, and openly discusses his desire to enact federal laws prohibiting transition until the age of 21.
Thank goodness he’s such an ineffectual dipshit. I’d be scared if this guy actually stood a chance of becoming president.
Closing out the debate’s transgenderededism portion, Ramaswamy compares Nikki Haley’s campaign ads to “a woke Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light ad,” and firmly declares that “having two X chromosomes does not immunize you from criticism.”
Good stuff, bud.
You got ‘er, champ.
In parting, let me just say that I’m very thankful that absolutely nobody on that stage actually stands a chance at winning the presidential election. Every poll worth its salt favors Trump by a margin of 30% or more, which means most of these chucklefucks are secretly auditioning for a governorship or a string of interviews on Fox News promoting the crappy ghostwritten novel they’ll be selling next year. Titled something like, American Cancel Culture: The War on Normalcy.
Don’t steal that, Ramaswamy. I came up with it first and I will litigate aggressively.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a professional writer and video games nerd who hails from Appalachia but lives, laughs, loves in Rapid City.
