Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul bashed for saying transgender surgery is ‘genital mutilation’
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was slammed as “transphobic” after he asserted that President Joe Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary of health supports surgery for transgender children and referred to that practice as “genital mutilation.”
Paul questioned Dr. Rachel Levine on the topic Thursday during Levine’s Senate confirmation hearing. Levine could be the first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the Senate. Levine has worked as a pediatrician and served as the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health.
“Dr. Levine, you have supported both allowing minors to be given hormone blockers to prevent them from going through puberty as well as surgical destruction of a minor’s genitalia,” Paul asserted.
Earlier in his remarks, Paul also claimed that American culture was “normalizing” the practice through “social pressure.” Paul eventually asked Levine if “minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision as changing one’s sex?”
Levine didn’t specifically answer Paul’s question, instead replying “transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed.” Levine added that she’d be happy to discuss the care of transgender individuals and minors if the Senate confirmed her.
Paul accused her of evading the question and asked again, and Levine answered similarly.
Levine said in 2015 that genital surgery wasn’t recommended before age 18, according to The Hill. In 2017, while speaking at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania, Levine said there are some procedures that might be done before age 18.
Paul quickly faced criticism on social media and in the Senate hearing. Vox reported that Paul’s assertion about “genital mutilation” was a “misnomer,” which Republicans have frequently used before to pursue anti-transgender policy.
Ruben Gonzales, CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, said in a statement that Paul “chose devotion to anti-LGBTQ extremist groups.”
“His remarks echo the talking points of the same organizations who said gay men deserved AIDS and that LGBTQ people should be criminalized,” Gonzales said. “He explicitly attacked vulnerable trans youth for his own perceived political gain, and it was a disgrace.”
Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington and the chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, called out Paul’s comments later in the hearing.
“It is really critical to me that our nominees be treated with respect and that our questions focus on their qualifications and the work ahead of us rather than on ideological and harmful misrepresentations like those we heard from Sen. Paul earlier, and I will focus on that as chair of this committee,” Murray said, according to Fox News.
This story was originally published February 26, 2021 at 8:23 AM.