Joe Biden takes a swing at trans health care bans: “No state should be able to do that”
In a Now This Presidential Forum, President Biden lambasted state lawmakers who want to ban gender-affirming health care.
Biden was being interviewed by trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, who has been publicly documenting her transition with a series called Days of Girlhood.
Mulvaney asked Biden if states should have the right to ban gender-affirming health care.
“I don’t think any state or anybody should have the right to do that,” Biden responded. “As a moral question and as a legal question, I just think it’s wrong.”
He continued, “Sometimes they try to block you from being able to access certain medicines, being able to access certain procedures… No state should be able to do that in my view. I feel very very strongly that you should have every single solitary right including use of your gender identity bathrooms in public.”
Mulvaney then talked about how Republicans basically blame the trans community for the downfall of society and how dangerous that sentiment is to the mental and physical health of trans people.
She asked how Democratic leaders can more effectively advocate for trans people.
“Being seen with people like you,” Biden said. “I mean it. I genuinely mean it. People fear what they don’t know…and when people realize, ‘oh this is what you’re telling me to be frightened of? This is the problem?’ People change their minds. People just don’t know enough to know, and it’s not because of intellectual incapabilities. It’s just lack of exposure.”
Republicans across the country have continued to introduce bills seeking to outlaw gender-affirming care for trans youth. In August, anti-LGBTQ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) also introduced a bill at the federal level that would make providing gender-affirming care for transgender minors a class C felony.