During a House Judiciary Committee meeting on Wednesday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) spoke out for trans people while slamming Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for massive hypocrisy in his views on hormone therapy.
“Let me be very clear: Trans people have always and will always exist,” Jayapal said in a video she posted to her social media accounts. “Republicans will try to negate the urgency of gender-affirming care by cherry-picking extreme examples of people who regret care,” she said, bringing up a review conducted by the Utah legislature that found “‘there is virtually no regret associated with receiving treatments.’”
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That’s why almost every major medical organization in the country supports gender-affirming care for young people, she explained, and why they “have standards in place to ensure that this care can be provided responsibly.”
“What is true is that for most trans youth,” she continued, “care simply comes in the form of puberty pausing medications after close consultation with youth, their parents, and their medical providers. These medications have been prescribed safely for both non-transgender and transgender children for decades. Trans patients use them at exactly the same doses and for exactly the same outcomes as their non transgender counterparts.”
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In the same hearing, Jayapal slammed Hegseth for his announcement on Wednesday that the military will begin testing service members 30 and up for testosterone deficiency and will provide optional hormone therapy to those who need it “to operate at your absolute best.”
Calling the Defense Department the “High-T Department of War,” Hegseth said the program is “not about artificial enhancement; it’s about restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities, protecting your longevity, and ensuring you have the biological foundation required to sustain the fight.”
Democrats are horrified by the initiative. “The Secretary of Forever Wars, Pete Hegseth, said that they are going to provide hormone therapy for male service members who don’t have enough testosterone,” Jayapal said.
“This, by the way, is gender-affirming care, and by the way, male members of this committee, watch what you vote for. Do you really want the government getting into your business, taking your testosterone levels, and determining whether or not you have enough testosterone? Are you male enough to be in Congress? That is the question.”
She then said she would move on “from the absurd to the very, very, very serious,” and brought up data from the Trevor Project that found in the past year, 40% of trans and nonbinary young people seriously considered taking their own lives.
She told Republicans to stop shaming these kids and instead, “Let us provide support to them.”
Jayapal, who has a trans child, has long been an ardent supporter of trans rights. Earlier this year, she helped lead an effort in Congress to reintroduce the Transgender Bill of Rights, calling on the federal government to “codify the rights of transgender and nonbinary people under the law and ensure their access to medical care, shelter, safety, and economic security.”
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