President Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary for health and human services declined to respond after being questioned by senator Rand Paul at his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday about his position on the gender transition for children.
“American culture is now normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones to prevent the biological development of their secondary sexual characteristics,” said Paul of Kentucky at the hearing for Dr. Rachel Levin, a transsexual woman.
“Most genital mutilation is not usually done by force. But, as the WHO observes by social convention, social norm, the social pressure to conform to what others do and have been doing, as well as the need to be accepted socially, the fear of being rejected by the community ”, said Paul .
In conclusion, he started his question to Levine.
“Dr. Levine, you supported both the permission for minors to receive hormonal blockers to prevent them from going through puberty and the surgical destruction of minors’ genitalia. Like surgical mutilation, hormonal disruption at puberty can permanently alter and prevent secondary sexual characteristics, ”he continued.
Paul then asked Levine, “Do you believe that minors are capable of making a life-changing decision, like changing their sex?”
Levine, the first transgender person to be nominated for a cabinet-level position, dodged the question, replying by saying that transgender medicine is a “very complex and nuanced field” and adding that she would be happy to discuss the “details “if confirmed.
Paul pressed.
“Are you going to make a firmer decision on whether minors should be involved in those decisions?” He said.
Levine, the Pennsylvania secretary of health, once again refused to respond, saying she would be “happy” to talk to him about the matter.
Senator Patty Murray, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, told Paul that her line of questioning was inadequate and wrong.
“It is very important to me that our nominees are treated with respect and that our questions focus on their qualifications, rather than false ideological and harmful representations like the ones we heard from Senator Paul earlier, and I will focus on that as chairman of this committee,” Murray (D-WA) said.