'No Adult Should Confuse a Child About Who They Are': Expert Chides Biden's Transgender Comments

ABOVE: Ryan Anderson, Ph.D., a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation and the author of the book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment appeared on the Monday afternoon edition of CBN's Newswatch to talk about gender identity and why adults should not do anything to confuse a child. 

In the final weeks of the campaign, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is doubling down on his support for the transgender movement.

At a virtual LGBTQ summit, he promised to win full rights for the transgender community and advance LGBT rights around the globe.

And at his town hall meeting on Thursday, Biden told a mother who said her eight-year-old daughter was transgender that he supports children who want to change their gender.

"I would just flat out change the law," Biden replied. "Eliminate those executive orders number one."

"The idea that an eight or 10-year-old child decides you know, 'I decided I want to be transgender. That's what I think I'd like to be. It would make my life a lot easier.' There should be zero discrimination," he continued. 

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In an interview Monday afternoon on CBN's Newswatch, Ryan Anderson, Ph.D., a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation and the author of the book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, responded to the former vice president.

"No adult should be doing anything to confuse a child about who they are, with the body they have," Anderson explained. "We are our bodies. And we shouldn't be suggesting to young people that they might be trapped in the wrong body or that we should be blocking their puberty or we should be giving them cross-sex hormones. That's what this is ultimately about."

"Children who don't feel comfortable in their own bodies and then adults suggesting to them that their truth might be actually the opposite sex," he continued. "And that modern medicine could then transform their body to align it with the opposite sex."

Anderson also suggested adults should help children feel comfortable in their own bodies, not creating confusion. 

When asked about discrimination and children choosing puberty blockers and hormones, he replied, "What's happening here is that liberals are using that word 'discrimination' to say that any disagreement about transgenderism is discrimination. So, if you disagree with puberty-blocking drugs for children, if you disagree with cross-sex hormones for teenagers, they could then accuse you of discrimination. We should just reject that framing of the question." 

"What we have here is a disagreement," he continued. "I think it's bad medicine to give a child puberty-blocking drugs just to delay or prevent their natural biological puberty. I think it's bad medicine to give a child the opposite sex hormones. That's not discrimination. That's a disagreement of the nature and purpose of medicine, the nature, and purpose of healing – wholeness. And so I think we need to have the conversation along those lines to what's actually going to bring healing, wholeness, happiness, and fulfillment to children who are struggling with their gender identity – not hijack the language of the Civil Rights Movement."

Anderson also spoke about the establishment media's decision to give a pass to people who are in favor of transitioning children.

"I think most people in the media realize this is something the vast majority of Americans are not on-board with," he told CBN News. 
"Whatever you may think about an adult transitioning, the vast majority of Americans think that children should be given the time and the space to continue growing and developing in their own bodies."

"When it comes to kids, Americans understand that we really shouldn't do anything to interfere with their bodily development, or for that matter, their psychological development. Give them the social environment, the school environment, the family environment in which they can feel comfortable with their own body," Anderson noted. "Don't transform the body. Don't corrupt the environment." 

President Trump has not been speaking about transgender issues on the campaign trail, but his administration has taken some strategic action. That includes reversing an Obama-era mandate that allowed students that identify as transgender to use opposite-sex bathrooms in schools, and a military policy that limits transgender service members.