Family groups, activists, and lawmakers strongly criticized President Joe Biden’s State of the Union remarks on transgender youth, accusing the president of ignoring the health and safety of children.
The president urged lawmakers to enact the radically progressive Equality Act during remarks Tuesday evening, criticizing the “onslaught of state laws targeting transgender Americans and their families.”
Biden’s comment is an apparent reference to the slew of transgender-related legislation across the country. While some of this legislation prohibits biological males from participating in women’s sports or from sharing women’s spaces, other legislation bans minors from obtaining transgender surgeries and hormones — medical interventions that advocates and many in the legacy media frame as “gender-affirming medical care.”
“As I said last year, especially to our younger transgender Americans, I’ll always have your back as your President so you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential,” Biden added.
Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks told The Daily Wire on Wednesday that he believes it is “cruel” for people “to push drastic and irreversible medical procedures on children.”
“The doctors and politicians who promote these surgeries are harming kids, and I’m working on a plan to hold them accountable,” said Banks, a member of the Republican Study Committee who has repeatedly urged Republicans to “lean into the culture war.”
American Principles Project President Terry Schilling predicted that the Democratic Party will turn away Americans with such radical stances, calling Biden’s State of the Union remarks a “clarifying moment.”
“If Joe Biden actually supported transgender kids he’d support legal protections for the ones who regret their transitions, he’d talk about de-transitioners and the many kids who were rushed into these procedures,” Schilling told The Daily Wire.
For LGBTQ+ Americans, let’s finally get the bipartisan Equality Act to my desk.
As I said last year — especially to our younger transgender Americans — I will always have your back as your president so you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 2, 2022
“But he doesn’t support transgender kids,” Schilling added. “He supports a corrupt medical community that’s exploiting these kids for profit. Where were all of these transgender kids in the 90’s and 2000’s? Seems they began to rise as the medical industry began to adopt the practice.”
Biden is “out of touch with real America,” Family Policy Alliance’s Meridian Baldacci told The Daily Wire, noting that Americans across the country back efforts to support healthy choices for children and to “Save Girl’s Sports.”
“The transgender agenda is harming our kids,” said Baldacci. “Its victims are left with wounds of the heart and of the body. It’s an agenda that leaves hurting kids sterile and destroys opportunities for women.”
“By contrast,” she continued, “we believe in helping families – and people – thrive. That’s why we support providing kids with real help, not the harm of hormones and surgeries. It’s why we stand for women and girls’ opportunities.”
Biden promises "younger transgender Americans" that he "will always have your back as your President, so you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential."
Encouraging young children to pursue sex changes. Gross. pic.twitter.com/Qe3ejJseWy
— American Principles 🇺🇸 (@approject) March 2, 2022
Biden’s comments come after Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate “so-called ‘sex change’ procedures” that are found to “constitute child abuse under existing Texas law.”
In a statement to Fox News Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called it “shocking and sad” that Biden would “champion cruel forms of child abuse such as genital mutilation through forced so-called sex-change operations and the prescription of dangerous puberty blockers.”
“I will always defend the children of Texas from these inhumane procedures,” he added.
In contrast, liberal groups welcomed Biden’s remarks — Joni Madison, Interim President of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement that Biden’s call couldn’t have come at a more urgent moment.
“State legislatures across the country are increasingly advancing discriminatory measures that seek to take us backward as a nation, shamelessly attacking transgender youth,” Madison said.
“The president’s message tonight is one that must be amplified across the country, especially amongst young transgender people.”
GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis tweeted that “every lawmaker at every level of government must commit to” follow Biden’s example.
“As state politicians target young transgender Americans and Texas Governor Greg Abbott dangerously threatens parents for caring for their own children, President Biden tonight shared a bold and unequivocal message of support for transgender people and all LGBTQ Americans,” she added.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s requests for comment.