US President Joe Biden has described efforts to prevent children from accessing transgender medical treatments as “close to sinful”.
Biden said that federal laws should be passed to protect trans rights. He also criticised Governor Ron DeSantis’s restrictions in Florida.
DeSantis is introducing a measure banning transgender medical interventions in Florida for under-18s, which Biden called “cruel”, in an interview set to be broadcast tonight.
According to The Telegraph:
He told host Kal Penn, who previously worked in the Barack Obama administration, that the way to combat such laws was by passing legislation in Congress – just as Mr Biden did last year when his administration codified same-sex marriage rights.
Mr Biden said: “It’s cruel, and the way we do it is we make sure we pass legislation like we passed on same-sex marriage. You mess with that, you’re breaking the law and you’re going to be held accountable.”
The president has repeatedly made clear his opinions on the issue. Hosting a number of trans activists at the White House late last year, he said it was “immoral” for Republican states to block children’s access to transgender treatments.
The Biden administration signed an executive order to enhance protections for transgender children and take steps to ban conversion therapy.
Meanwhile, Jill Biden was criticised by some Republicans last week for presenting an award to a transgender woman on International Women’s Day…
In the interview, Mr Biden also affirmed his support for same-sex marriage, describing an epiphany when he was young after seeing two “well-dressed men” kissing outside an office building in Delaware.
“I’ll never forget – I turned and looked at my dad. He said, ‘Joey, it’s simple. They love each other’,” he said.
