Florida Republican-turned MSNBC talking head-turned Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Jolly has portrayed himself as the kind of aspiring governor who would not insert himself into decisions about whether or not a minor should receive transgender “medical care.” This has led GOP nominee Byron Donalds and his PAC to say Jolly supports transgender surgeries for minors, but the damage control team at PolitiFact slapped a “false” label on those claims on Wednesday.
Samantha Putterman justified the rating by citing The Friends of Byron Donalds PAC’s ad that “says Jolly supports ‘gender changing surgeries on kids’ and plays a clip of Jolly saying, ‘We embraced it, the medical pathways, the gender-affirming care.’”
Several words later, Putterman asserted, “Although he relayed a story about healthcare for a youth transitioning from one gender to another, we found no examples in the public record of Jolly talking specifically about gender-affirming surgeries for kids. The Donalds’ campaign did not provide any in response to our inquiry.”
That may seem like a slam dunk against Donalds and his PAC, but Putterman was too quick to slap on the false label. She also recalled, “When asked by reporters about medical care for trans youth, Jolly has said he supports families making medical decisions with a doctor. It is not standard medical practice for doctors to provide gender-affirming surgeries for young children.”
The link Putterman provided, ironically, provided several examples of minors receiving surgeries. PolitiFact is trying to claim “young children” and teenagers are two separate categories to dismiss conservative arguments, but in doing so, all PolitiFact has done is light a straw man on fire because both are minors.
Later, she recalled Jolly stating his own position to Politico:
When Politico asked Jolly in July for his position on ‘gender medicine for minors,’ he responded: ‘I simply subscribe to the old-school Republican position that government should stay out of your life, out of your doctor’s office, and out of your bedroom. The last person you need sitting on the foot of your bed during hard family conversations is Byron Donalds.
Wrapping up, Putterman doubled down on the false “young children” versus “teens” dichotomy while again noting Jolly’s habit of portraying himself as a libertarian:
When asked by reporters about medical care for trans youth, Jolly said he supports families having the ability to make medical decisions with their doctor. Gender-affirming care can include using a different name or a person’s preferred pronouns, and treatments are typically available only to adolescents and adults. In rare cases, that can include surgeries for older teens with parental consent — not young children.”
Conservatives simply do not grant Putterman the argument that there is a difference between “young children” and “teens.” As Putterman herself noted many times, Jolly has portrayed himself as someone who would allow parents and doctors to do whatever they wish, so while he may technically have never said the word “surgery,” the logical conclusion of such a libertarian approach is that he does support the idea. That they are “rare” should be irrelevant to a fact-checker.
