At their third televised debate on Wednesday night, with Florida Governor, the remaining non-Trump Republican presidential candidates stepped up their commitment to transphobia. Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis competed to be the most anti-trans on stage.
Co-moderator Megyn Kelly questioned New Jersey Governor during the conversation, which was broadcast on the streaming media network NewsNation. Chris Christie revealed his neutral stance on transgender youth. Kelly asked Christie if he was “out of step” with his party after falsely describing gender-affirming care for children as “cutting off body parts.” (This is a typical example of conservative misinformation; in fact, trans youth surgeries are uncommon.)
Christie retorted that he believed the problem to be one of “parents’ rights” and that taking away their ability to make medical decisions would go against Republican small-government principles. “And Megyn, do you know what?” He continued, “I trust parents,” and made a light mention of the “parental rights” movement’s double standards, which forbid parents from affirming their children. Christie argued that “we should be encouraging kids” to instill values in their kids without disclosing what those values ought to be.
Kelly then allowed Haley, DeSantis, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to flood in and denounce Christie, each vying to occupy the most advantageous position. DeSantis pretended that doctors are “mutilating” and “cutting off” children’s genitalia and accused supportive families of child maltreatment while savoring the applause of the audience. However, things quickly heated up when DeSantis attacked Haley for opposing a 2016 “bathroom bill,” which sparked several days of argument over who had the better glass police record.
Ramaswamy then added that he thought “transgenderism is a mental health disorder” and, in support of the second conversation, “banning genital mutilation or chemical castration,” compared it to the highways project of former President Ronald Reagan. The exclusion of trans people from gendered sports leagues was referred to as “the women’s issue of our time” by Haley, who was still looking up DeSantis.
The topic of Ramaswamy’s Hindu beliefs was finally brought up by the moderators.
The Republican debates this year have seen an increase in anti-trans rhetoric from the dwindling candidate pool, with Christie being the only centrist left (though still one who criticized Joe Biden for “sleeping with a member of the teachers’ union,” i.e., his wife of several decades). While mediator and FOX News anchor Dana Perino went on the attack against North Dakota Governor, Ramaswamy and former Vice President Mike Pence, who has since withdrawn from the competition, both expressed their support for a national gender-affirming care restriction in September. Doug Burgum for claiming that the issue of transgender medical was a “state’s right” one. GOP politicians and conservative pundits have rushed this year to exaggerate trans medication by falsely accusing doctors of amputation, yet comparing such care to performing lobotomies, as a fresh Media Matters statement noted this week.
Trump has made it clear he would swiftly implement such fascist measures if reelected, calling trans people “deranged” and their identities “insanity” at campaign stops earlier this year. He hasn’t yet appeared at any of the debates (he’s much too busy auditioning to be the next top felon in America). Is this sufficient justification to stop referring to Ron and him as “fruity”?
