Rand Paul attacks Biden’s transgender health secretary over her support for gender reassignment surgery for minors

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican, has criticised one of President Joe Biden’s health nominees for her support of gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapy for minors.

Dr Rachel Levine, the Pennsylvania secretary of health and Mr Biden’s pick for assistant secretary of health if confirmed by the Senate, faced a line of questioning from senators on Thursday during her confirmation hearing.

During his questioning, Mr Paul compared genital mutilation to children taking medication or undergoing surgery in order to transition to the opposite sex. Genital mutilation, which is condemned by public health organisations like the World Health Organisation (WHO), is the act of removing someone’s genitals for no medical purposes.

“American culture is now normalising the idea that minors can be given hormones to prevent their biological development of their secondary biological characteristic,” Mr Paul said.

Mr Paul went on to state that Dr Levine, who is transgender, has supported minors taking hormone-blocking medication medications, even if their parents have expressed concerns about the transition.

“For most of our history, we have believed that minors don’t have full rights and that parents need to be involved,” Mr Paul continued. “We should be outraged that someone’s talking to a three-year-old about changing their sex.”

He then asked if Dr Levine believed minors are “capable of making life-changing decisions as changing one’s sex?”

Dr Levine sidestepped the question and instead answered the senator more broadly about transgender issues and their relation to the medical community.

“Transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed,” Dr Levein said. Then she added she would “be pleased” to answer questions about puberty blockers and sex changes in minors in the future if confirmed by the Senate.

But the answer did not satisfy the senator, who said she did not answer specifically answer if minors should be “making these momentous decisions.”

“You’re willing to let a minor take things to prevent their puberty, and you think they get back?” Mr Paul asked. “You have permanently changed them … None of these drugs have been approved for this … There are no long-term studies, we don’t know what happens to them. If you’ve ever been around children, 14-year-olds can’t make this decision.”

Conservatives have slammed the nomination of Dr Levine over concerns she could “normalise” being transgender. But LGBTQ advocate groups have celebrated her nomination, as she would be the highest-ranking transgender offical in the federal government to ever take office, if confirmed.

Vanessa Lamers, the assistant director to the Public Health Foundation, condemned the Republican senator on Twitter for his line of questioning.

“No. @RandPaul. You absolutely cannot compare transgender medicine and hormone pills to genital mutilation. This is a disgusting line of questioning,” she wrote.

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One Response to “Rand Paul attacks Biden’s transgender health secretary over her support for gender reassignment surgery for minors”

  1. Andronikos says:

    We are living in the realm of the insane where the demons rule. If you oppose, you are charged with racism and/or antisemitism, or involved in criminal activity. It’s here.

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