(BrightPress.org) – The fourth GOP primary debate in Alabama got heated when the subject of transgender children came up. Co-moderator Megyn Kelly broached the subject when she asked former NJ governor Chris Christie about a 2017 bill, which he signed into law, that issued guidelines for New Jersey schools dealing with transgender kids.
Kelly outlined how the law forced school staff to accept a student’s self-declared gender identity over the objections of the parents and even suggested the school had no obligation to inform parents of the situation should the child demand recognition of a new name or alternative pronouns.
Christie issued vehement denials, despite the facts being available. He suggested the law wasn’t enacted until 2018 after he was out of office and claimed Kelly was “simply wrong.” He then claimed that he was a parents’ rights defender, arguing that parents should make medical decisions for their kids, implying that if we restrict some parental rights others may be on the table in the future.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis shot back that parents don’t have the ‘right’ to abuse their children, which garnered the loudest round of applause of the evening from the audience. He then laid into the concept of gender treatments for minors, explicitly stating the procedures are genital mutilation and irreversible.
DeSantis added that European countries have begun prohibiting the practice. Sweden, France, and Norway restricted the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments for minors to clinical trials in 2021, and Finland did the same in 2020.
DeSantis further pointed out that former U.N. ambassador & South Carolina governor Nikki Haley agreed with Christie, that both of the liberal-leaning Republicans tended to favor the current trends in gender ideology. He specifically mentioned Haley’s opposition to a bill in South Carolina that would have prohibited transgender women (who were born male) from accessing women’s restrooms or locker rooms. “She killed that bill,” he said.
DeSantis then clapped Haley for bragging about it, pointing out that she continues to consider that an accomplishment up through the present. DeSantis firmly stated his belief that men accessing women’s facilities is wrong and that governments have the authority to protect women from that kind of experience.
Clips of the exchange are available.
Copyright 2023, BrightPress.org
