Daily Wire host and author Matt Walsh rebuked the media Tuesday at a bill signing to outlaw so-called transgender care on minors in the state of Mississippi.
Republican Governor Tate Reeves, with Walsh in attendance, signed House Bill 1125, banning sex-change procedures for minors and punishing doctors who push cross-sex drugs and procedures for those under 18.
When a reporter at the signing suggested gender-confused children taking puberty blockers are “more self-confident,” Walsh responded by saying such “care” is “utterly horrific and insane on its face.”
The author noted that, first, there is no large-scale data backing up the assertion, since this is the first time in history that we’ve doled out cross-sex hormones and performed these surgeries on so many minors.
“We haven’t done this to kids on this kind of scale ever before in history,” he said. “These kids are the lab rats.”
This also “defies common sense,” Walsh continued, “I find it grotesque that the way to stop a child from hurting themselves is to ‘affirm’ that they’re in the wrong body.”
Instead, these children need to be put on a path to “self-acceptance.” “‘This is who you are’ — that should be the message,” Walsh added.
Medical professionals “affirming” that children are in the wrong bodies is “utterly horrific and insane on its face,” the author asserted.
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Walsh also took on a question from the media suggesting that the bill contradicts the governor’s belief in “parental rights.”
“I believe in parental rights,” Walsh responded. “But you don’t have the right to directly harm your child; child abuse is against the law in every state, as it should be.”
Walsh emphasized that “we cannot allow this evil” of mutilating children “to continue,” adding that these kids “need guidance and love.”
For good measure, the host also took a shot at the “culpable” media for not showing an “ounce of skepticism” against the “medical establishment.”
Walsh is one of the most influential cultural commentators in the movement against efforts to mainstream transgenderism, particularly when it comes to minors.
Back in October, Walsh hosted a “Rally To End Child Mutilation” in Tennessee, before an estimated crowd of up to 3,000 people. Speakers included former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), trans-identifying star of Walsh’s “What is a Woman?” documentary Scott Newgent, Robby and Landon Starbuck, and de-transitioner Chloe Cole — all emphasizing the need to protect children from procedures that range from puberty blockers to mastectomies, The Daily Wire reported.
Moreover, Walsh earlier this month testified before a Tennessee House committee and sparred with Democrat lawmakers while advocating for a bill that would similarly ban sex-change treatments on minors. The legislation was passed in the state House and will go to the desk of Republican Governor Bill Lee, who is expected to sign it.
“We should not allow permanent, life-altering decisions that hurt children. With the partnership of the General Assembly, this practice should end in Tennessee,” Lee said in the fall after an investigation by Daily Wire host Matt Walsh revealed that the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) had performed double mastectomies on minors.
House Bill 1125, known as the “Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (REAP) Act,” overwhelmingly passed Mississippi’s Republican-led Senate 33-15 last week after passing the state House 78-30 in January. It is now law.
Zach Jewell and Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.