NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — How old do you have to be to determine if you are male or female?
That question seems to be at the center of a heated debate between a popular blogger and a lawmaker from Nashville after Tennessee legislators advanced a handful of proposals that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The push in Tennessee comes as state lawmakers across the United States are introducing dozens of restrictions targeting LGBTQ people, even as critics warn that such proposals are discriminatory and harmful.
Matt Walsh is an American right-wing political author of four books and host of The Matt Walsh Show podcast. He’s also the same writer for The Daily Wire who shared videos last year of a Vanderbilt doctor calling such transgender surgeries “huge moneymakers.”
This week, Walsh testified in front of Tennessee lawmakers to support a bill that would ban such procedures.
“You’ve testified as to a lot of your own research. So I’m curious, for what purpose do you do that? And what background do you have that qualifies you?” asked Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville).
“My background that qualifies me to speak to this is that I’m a human being with a brain and common sense and I have a soul,” Walsh quipped.
Walsh told lawmakers he’s “read the data” on gender-affirming care for trans minors, but never went to college.
Clemmons: And for what purpose do you conduct your research and use this brain of yours?
Walsh: I use it for the purpose of trying to protect children from being castrated and mutilated. That’s one of the things I try to do.
If the law is enacted, doctors would be prohibited from providing gender-affirming care to anyone under the age of 18, including prescribing puberty blockers and hormones. However, the legislation includes exceptions that would allow doctors to perform these medical services if they’re treating an abnormality or if the patient’s care had begun prior to July 1, 2023 — which is when the ban is proposed to go into effect — and the doctor believes ending the care would harm the patient.
