At a Tennessee Health Committee hearing on Wednesday, Matt Walsh addressed Democrat Rep.
Caleb Hemmer with a question pertaining to whether a 16-year-old could legitimately give permission for body parts to be taken away. His question was met with nothing but silence.
Testifying in favor of HB0001, which seeks to ban doctors from conducting experimental sex changes on minors below 19, Walsh was challenged by Hemmer with a recently published article that alleged that Walsh believes 16-year-olds should marry and produce offspring.
Hemmer asked Walsh why the bill in question had established 18 as the age of a minor, considering Walsh's perception that 16 was an adult.
Walsh proposed that, given the fact that the human brain is not completely mature until 25, there should be a debate concerning whether age 18 is too early for someone to grant permission to undergo sexual transition legally. He made this statement after making sure that his audience understood that he was implying that people traditionally married and started families at a younger age than is common today.
"Certainly before 18, its absurd. I mean, do you think that a 16-year-old can meaningfully consent to having their body parts removed? Walsh asked.
The legislative body broke the lengthy, unpleasant quiet and told Walsh: We ask the questions.
At another point in his testimony, Walsh was asked about the danger of suicide among individuals identifying as trans before and after medical treatments for transitioning.
In response, Walsh noted that the notion that puberty-blocking drugs, surgery, or hormonal intervention could prevent suicide or have positive psychological effects, in the long run, is completely unfounded. He went on to explain that this is due to the fact that there have never been comprehensive long-term studies conducted on minors of this scale before.
He continued on to say that this generation of children is the ones being tested on, as it is all experimental. He noted a previous failed attempt by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) to prove that transitioning in children is psychologically helpful and curtails suicidal thoughts.
Walsh then went on to point out the contradiction in the transition-or-suicide narrative in comparison to the argument of advocates of gender-affirming care, who believe the recent surge in the number of young people identifying as transgender is not due to social contagion but rather to greater societal acceptance.
"Ifthere have always beenmillions of trans people, and if it's also true that if we don't affirm them, that would cause them to commit suicide, then we should be able to look back in history and find just this unbroken, incredible epidemic of children mysteriously killing themselves because they weren't being affirmed as trans, said Walsh. That didn't exist. I mean, the youth suicide rate has increased exponentially alongside trans affirmation. Walsh stated.
Login