If you’re a trans person, David French feels your pain. He thinks the GOP’s vilification of trans people during the campaign was deplorable. And yet, he supports Tennessee’s position on the treatment of trans children, because he finds that the state has a right to override the preferences of doctors and parents, and because he believes the evidence on the proper treatment of trans children is unclear. Is he right?
I have some issues with his arguments. If you accept that the medical evidence is disputed–and I do–prohibiting the treatment regimen preferred by most doctors isn’t exactly a good way to generate evidence and get to the truth. In addition, Tennessee is taking away a potential remedy without offering anything in return. Finally, and most importantly for this post, the argument that the state has the right to override parental wishes on a variety of issues, while legally correct, is fundamentally inconsistent with the GOP’s campaign supporting “parental rights” on a host of other matters.
What the GOP really means is that it only supports the rights of reactionary parents to exempt themselves from the rules of a liberal state. Liberal parents in red states need not apply.