As Republican state legislatures across the country move to ban sex changes or “gender-affirming care” for minors, MSNBC All In host Chris Hayes decried the efforts by playing a clip from his podcast where Dr. Izzy Lowell claimed that children as young as four can choose their gender.
In his lead up to the clip, and talking over an image of three skeptical headlines from liberal publications, Hayes noted, “There's also been a raft of coverage, I'm sure you've seen, of the critics of the processes around gender-affirming care itself, particularly for youth, from the protocols that are currently being used to the clinics themselves that administer this care, including from people have detransitioned, who regret what happened.”
Instead of exploring that angle further, Hayes attacked conservatives, “Those critiques functionally get run together with the beliefs of a significant number of people in the American right, particularly, who just don't want trans people to exist, and trans folks’ rights are clearly extremely and acutely under threat.”
Ultimately the reason people oppose giving hormones to youth, Hayes explained, is because they just don’t get it, “I've got to say, part of the reason, not the only reason, a lot of its bigotry and prejudice and the like, but part of the reason for the threat is that I think a lot of people are confused about what we're talking about when we talk about gender-affirming care for minors, particularly, for youth.”
As for the clip, it was even more grotesque when it is considered that Lowell acknowledged children do have good answers to life’s big questions, “It's a great question, it's the question that everyone wants to talk about is, how can we let a 10-year-old, 11-year-old make a decision about this, something so momentous? And it's tough, but what I would say to people is, yeah, I didn't know a lot of things when I was ten or 12 or 20. I didn't know my sexuality; I didn't know if I wanted to have kids or not.”
However, Lowell tried to claim that gender is somehow different, “I didn't know some huge decisions about major life things, but I did know what gender I was.”
Instead of being a complicated decision, Lowell insisted it is actually rather simple, "And I think it's the same as for a lot of the children, not all of them, but many children, parents bring them in and say, oh, we've known that she's a girl since she was four and the child knows that, the parents know that. Many of the cases are absolutely straightforward, everybody knows that this person is a girl, she just needs some medical assistance to become a woman. Some cases are more complicated, but in a lot of cases, it's pretty simple."
As for the definition of “girl,” Hayes didn’t play the part of the interview (beginning at the 17:00 mark) where Lowell says that to be a girl, all that is need is a simple belief that you are. That is so absurd it is self-parody, how do you know if you're a girl if there is no definition of "girl" and what is to stop a 4-year old, or anybody else for that matter, from identifying as a unicorn?
This segment was sponsored by ADT.
Here is a transcript of the March 1 show:
MSNBC All In With Chris Hayes
3/1/2023
8:46 PM ET
CHRIS HAYES: At least 23 states have introduced bills that would restrict transition-related care for minors. There's also been a raft of coverage, I'm sure you've seen, of the critics of the processes around gender-affirming care itself, particularly for youth, from the protocols that are currently being used to the clinics themselves that administer this care, including from people have detransitioned, who regret what happened.
Those critiques functionally get run together with the beliefs of a significant number of people in the American right, particularly, who just don't want trans people to exist, and trans folks’ rights are clearly extremely and acutely under threat.
I've got to say, part of the reason, not the only reason, a lot of its bigotry and prejudice and the like, but part of the reason for the threat is that I think a lot of people are confused about what we're talking about when we talk about gender-affirming care for minors, particularly, for youth and on my podcast Why Is This Happening, I spoke with Dr. Izzy Lowell, who runs an outfit called Queer Med, it’s a private clinic that specializes in providing accessible health care to trans patients, and I asked her what those consultations are like.
IZZY LOWELL: It's a great question, it's the question that everyone wants to talk about is, how can we let a 10-year-old, 11-year-old make a decision about this, something so momentous? And it's tough, but what I would say to people is, yeah, I didn't know a lot of things when I was ten or 12 or 20.
I didn't know my sexuality; I didn't know if I wanted to have kids or not. I didn't know some huge decisions about major life things, but I did know what gender I was.
And I think it's the same as for a lot of the children, not all of them, but many children, parents bring them in and say, oh, we've known that she's a girl since she was four and the child knows that, the parents know that. Many of the cases are absolutely straightforward, everybody knows that this person is a girl, she just needs some medical assistance to become a woman. Some cases are more complicated, but in a lot of cases, it's pretty simple.
