Global Courant 2023-05-01 04:01:13
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said on Sunday that the cultural movement of transgender ideology in the US is causing “more gender dysphoria” and “confusion” among young people.
“I think if a kid says I was born in the wrong body, my sex doesn’t match my biological sex, which more often than not is a case of a mental disorder,” Ramaswamy said on NBC News. “Meet the press.”
Anchor Chuck Todd asked Ramaswamy if he had ever spoken to parents of transgender children to try to understand their perspective.
“Actually, yes,” said Ramaswamy. “It’s a tough place to be, I recognize that. But what we need to do here on both sides is act with compassion, not really what makes us feel good about ourselves.”
Republican presidential nominee and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy addresses guests at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition Spring Kick-Off on April 22, 2023 in Clive, Iowa. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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“We’ve created a culture that teaches parents that they’re bigoted or they’re bad people if they don’t take those steps,” he said. “So, part of what I think is, listen, gender dysphoria for the few people who have suffered, it’s a state of suffering. My question is, why the hell are we doing everything we can to create more of it?” And there is no doubt that the cultural movement in this country, even education, is creating more gender dysphoria. If it is a state of suffering, let’s not create more of it. That is what we do.”
Republican presidential nominee Vivek Ramaswamy addresses guests at the 2023 NRA-ILA Leadership Forum in Indianapolis. (Jeremy Hogan / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images / File)
Todd asked the Republican nominee whether laws restricting a parent’s ability to have sex reassignment surgery for their child contradict the conservative ideal of limiting the government’s scope.
“There’s no state in this union that allows you to smoke an addictive cigarette before age 18, where you can get a tattoo before age 18 — that’s a body-altering change that a child may later regret.” life,” Ramaswamy said. “So I think it’s perfectly fair to say that if you’re over 18, you’re free to decide what you want to do. That’s what it means to live in a free country. But under the age of 18, I think it’s perfectly legitimate to say that we will not allow genital mutilation or chemical castration through puberty blockers.”
Republican presidential nominee and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy addresses Merrimack County Republicans at an event in Manchester, New Hampshire, on April 13, 2023. (Paul Steinhauser)
Todd asked, “Are you sure you know gender is as binary as you describe it, or are you sure it’s not a spectrum?”
“I am,” Ramaswamy replied.
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“Gender dysphoria has been characterized as a mental disorder for most of our history through the DSM-5,” he said, referring to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, published in 2013. I don’t think it’s compassionate to affirm that. I think cruelty is when a child is crying out for help. What they’re asking for is you have to ask the question what else is going wrong at home, what else is going wrong at school? Let’s be compassionate and get to the heart of the matter instead of playing this game as if we were actually changing our medical knowledge of the past 100 years.”
Ramaswamy, 37, a multi-millionaire healthcare and technology entrepreneur, is the author of “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam” and is currently a contender in the Republican primary.
Jessica Chasmar is a digital writer on the Fox News and Fox Business political team. Story tips can be sent to Jessica.Chasmar@fox.com.
