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Utah GOP Senator Explains Why He Supports Trans Kids & Adults


BarryLaverty

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Utah State Sen. Daniel Thatcher

 

 

The state lawmaker says Republicans worry that accepting transgender people will lead to an outbreak of new trans people nationwide.

MARCH 04 2023 12:03 PM EST
 
 
 

A Republican state senator in Utah stands at odds with his fellow party members over protecting transgender children, but he says he will not apologize for caring about trans kids.

Since being sworn into the Utah State Senate in 2011, Daniel Thatcher didn't intend to become involved in LGBTQ+ advocacy. As a Republican, he believed that your sexuality and gender identity were private matters, he told the New York Times podcast "First Person."

"My attitude was more that it's none of my business. It doesn't matter if I like it or don't. It doesn't matter if I understand it or don't,” he said. “The question is what should the government do about it And the answer is nothing. We should leave you alone.”

 

 

His reason for running for office as a Republican was based on that principle.

"I believe that the government should do less things to us," he added.

He said that during his campaign, when he was asked about LGBTQ+ matters, his response was always, "It's none of my business."

Recently, the Republican Party has increasingly promoted anti-trans legislation. As a result, dozens of draconian bills have been introduced in statehouses across the nation, ranging from measures to restrict transgender athletes' participation in school sports, ban access to gender-affirming health care to criminalizing drag queens and banning books about anything that simply mentions LGBTQ+ people or authors.

Republicans in Utah, and elsewhere, view it as a primary issue in the culture war.

Despite this, Thatcher rejects the GOP's war on transgender people. He has voted against anti-trans legislation when it was introduced, arguing it violates his conservative principles and threatens the health of trans kids.

He said his eyes began to open to the injustices against the LGBTQ+ community when he started focusing on legislative priorities around hate crime prevention and mental health access.

 

 

"As I started operating in the suicide prevention space, one of the things that stood out to me was how disproportionately it impacts and affects the LGBTQ community and especially transgender youth," he said.

Thatcher explained that as he reviewed suicide data in annual reports, he saw positive movement in some areas he had focused on, but among transgender youth, there seemed to be no improvement. He explained that he and his wife visited with a friend who introduced them to a transgender teen and his father.

The Republican state senator said in the interview that a conversation with the boy's father "absolutely changed my life."

"When I hear people talking, it's not generic. It's not random; it's not faceless. There are real people that are affected by anti-trans legislation."

Thatcher said his pleas with fellow Republicans to consider a tolerant perspective toward trans people were "not well received." He explained that while his approach aligns with a Libertarian mindset in that he prefers a hands-off approach to government in people's lives, the Constitution exists to protect rights.

"I think I believed that I could articulate and frame the discussion in a way that I could bring others along," he said.

 

 

"I was not," he added.

In 2021 Republicans introduced a bill to ban trans students from participating in sports teams.

"I knew it was going to be overturned," he said.

He explained that because he believed it to be unconstitutional, he had explained to transgender constituents that the bill would pass regardless of how much he fought it but that he was confident it would be overturned.

"You can't single out a group for unequal protection under the law," he said. "This isn't fuzzy."

The bill passed and was sent to the executive mansion for signature.

Utah's Republican Gov. Spencer Cox ultimately vetoed the bill, siding with Thatcher's point of view.

"Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few," Cox wrote in a letter with his veto, prompting the Republican senate president to call for and successfully override the veto.

Why the obsession with trans kids? Thatcher says it's because Republicans believe that acknowledging trans people would cause an outbreak of trans kids nationwide.

"Here's the thing. They're being told this is a social contagion, that these kids are popping up because we've made it more popular," he said.

 

 

"#####" he added. "It's becoming more common because it's becoming safer. It is not safe, but it's safer. As it becomes safer for people to come out, more and more people are going to realize this is something I care about. This is a family member. This is a friend. This is a friend's kid."

He said that his best friend from college has a transgender child and that someone Thatcher was friends with in high school reached out to him recently to share his story.

"One of my dear friends from high school reached out to me completely out of the blue last year and said, 'Hey, we haven't spoken since high school, but I have five kids, and two of them are trans. Thanks for stickin' up for my kids,'" he told the podcast.

Thatcher argued that while it's not fair that for some people to see transgender people as valid, they first need to meet them and get to know them, it's the sad truth.

He says that the GOP's position against transgender people is not sustainable.

"It's gonna be pretty hard to come back from this position, but as more and more voters have more and more people in their lives that they care about, this is something that is going to lead to single voter change," he said. “I think what’s going to happen is the first party that says ‘you know what, we’re going to come back to the Constitution, we’re going to be about individual rights, we’re going to come back to civil liberty, I think that’s the party that wins for the next ten years.”

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I'll tolerate the poop out of what people 21 and older want to do to themselves, in their homes, in their bedrooms.  I will not tolerate procedures to change the natural born sex of a minor because he wants to play with Barbies for 5 minutes.  We don't allow minors to get a tattoo, but we let a 14 year old girl lop off her breasts?  Body Dismorphya is a mental condition that needs to be addressed, not with puberty blockers and sex changes (which don't help the mental status of any of the people who undergo it.) but with therapy and probably even medication.

And stop trying to lump transgenders in with the LGB of the group.   They are not remotely the same.

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31 minutes ago, gamewatcher63 said:

He says that sexuality and gender is a private matter…..yet that’s not what the leftist radicals do….they want to shove there genitalia in the faces of toddlers

And announce publicly that an entire flight crew on a plane is LGBTQ.

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51 minutes ago, gamewatcher63 said:

He says that sexuality and gender is a private matter…..yet that’s not what the leftist radicals do….they want to shove there genitalia in the faces of toddlers…..sick pedo’s…..leave the kids alone 

Exactly 

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3 hours ago, JBizzle said:

I'll tolerate the poop out of what people 21 and older want to do to themselves, in their homes, in their bedrooms.  I will not tolerate procedures to change the natural born sex of a minor because he wants to play with Barbies for 5 minutes.  We don't allow minors to get a tattoo, but we let a 14 year old girl lop off her breasts?  Body Dismorphya is a mental condition that needs to be addressed, not with puberty blockers and sex changes (which don't help the mental status of any of the people who undergo it.) but with therapy and probably even medication.

And stop trying to lump transgenders in with the LGB of the group.   They are not remotely the same.

I agree with this, and it reflects my sentiments.  As long as they are 21 or older it's none of my business.  

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what should the government do about it And the answer is nothing. We should leave you alone.”

 

Finally a true conservative.  If someone touches a kid improperly .  Then prosecute on the individual basis, and send to prison for the rest of their lives with the rest of them.    Don't go after a group as a whole.  

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23 minutes ago, BlahBlah said:

what should the government do about it And the answer is nothing. We should leave you alone.”

 

Finally a true conservative.  If someone touches a kid improperly .  Then prosecute on the individual basis, and send to prison for the rest of their lives with the rest of them.    Don't go after a group as a whole.  

But the mental illness of Trans is being pushed everywhere, it’s not leaving us alone. It is an opposite and equal reaction to the stimulus. 

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16 minutes ago, BlahBlah said:

You know what I mean.  If you see report it.  

I do see it!  It's everywhere!  It's being crammed down the throats of people all over the country.  From TV shows to commercials to sporting events to awards shows to movies.  We are not just teaching tolerance and acceptance, we are teaching that it is the way!  We are being told we are transphobic if we wouldn't date a man who dresses like a woman.  We have drag queens doing dances in front of five year olds who are being told to put dollar bills in their underwear.  We are having pre-pubescent kids read stories about gay sex and how to jerk off.  We are allowing parents to start puberty blockers on kids as young as 6 years old!!!!  There is mental illness running rampant in this country and if we point it out, we are labeled as bigots and fascists!  Today's society teaches that if we just affirm people when they are spouting crazy things like "I am a girl in a boy's body", it will make life all better for them.  Nevermind the fact that the suicide rate in trans people changes NOT ONE BIT between pre-op and post-op. (But that's just because we won't accept them.)  Nevermind the lifetime of physical pain many of them experience from the surgeries.

It's terrible and it's not fair.  We are not allowing consenting adults to choose how they want to live.  We are grooming young children into a cult that you cannot speak out against for fear of being canceled.

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2 hours ago, BlahBlah said:

It is not bothering me or my family.  Maybe you are looking to be bothered.  

By your admission it’s not bothering you, you are essentially saying that you see it as well. Should it be as prevalent as it is shown? People don’t want to be force fed mental illness as sanity. Doesn’t matter if it bothers you or me. It shouldn’t be happening as much as it is and the push back is extremely warranted. 

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3 hours ago, JBizzle said:

So I should look the other way when kids are being abused?  Good idea.

Evil has no boundaries. Protecting the perpetrator is actually worse because you have trust. Same reason why the island list ain’t public.

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1 hour ago, Youngcoach123 said:

People want to mind their own business without a pride flag slapping them in the face every time the look up. 

Exactly this is made out to be our business. The left wants to treat them like race/sex rather than a mental illness.

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