NASHVILLE (LifeSiteNews) — During a committee hearing for a proposed ban on mutilating drugs and surgeries for gender-confused minors, Matt Walsh left Tennessee Democrats speechless while bluntly stating the damage caused by the immoral trend.
The Catholic commentator for the Daily Wire testified in favor of HB 0001 on February 8. If passed, the bill would ban the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and mutilating surgeries for minors with the intention of affirming a perceived “gender identity” and establish penalties for medical professionals who violate the law.
HB 0001 would also enable minors harmed by this type of malpractice to take legal action against their healthcare provider and parents if they were pushed into the mutilating procedures to satisfy a parent’s desires. Wrongful death lawsuits and a penalty of $25,000 for doctors who violate the law are also outlined in the bill.
Walsh testified in favor of the legislation at a Tennessee House committee hearing, introducing himself as a “husband, father, and concerned citizen of the state of Tennessee.”
In which @mattwalshblog leaves an elected Democrat absolutely speechless with one simple question. This clip is stunning. pic.twitter.com/R9hsy9hSlb
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) February 8, 2023
During the hearing, Democrat Rep. Caleb Hemmer of Nashville asked Walsh if a 16-year-old is “an adult in your view” and why the bill defined adults as 18-year-olds. Hemmer cited an article from the pro-LGBT Democrat-linked outlet Media Matters which highlighted Walsh discussing that, historically, people would marry young, and that trend has disappeared in modern culture.
“People are adults at 18,” Walsh replied after pointing out that the Media Matters “hit piece” skewed his words, which came from a radio show nearly 15 years earlier. “But actually, your brain is not fully developed until you’re 25. So, we should be having a conversation about whether we should even be doing these surgeries at 18,” he said.
“Certainly before 18, it’s absurd. I mean do you think that a 16-year-old can meaningfully consent to having their body parts removed? Do you?”
After several seconds of complete silence, the chairman fumbled through a response, saying that “we ask the questions” and quickly calling on the next representative to speak.
Another Democrat lawmaker from Nashville grilled Walsh on his education, specifically his background regarding healthcare. Rep. John Ray Clemmons commented that Walsh had been citing his own research, to which he said he was “curious for what purpose you do that.” Clemmons asked, “what background [do] you have that qualifies you to speak to that [child mutilation].”
“Well, my background that qualifies me to speak to this is that I’m a human being with a brain and common sense and I have a soul, and so therefore I think it’s a really bad idea,” Walsh replied. “It’s true I didn’t go to college, but I did go to school long enough to learn how to read, so I can read the data for myself and that’s exactly what I’ve done.”
When Clemmons pressed for an explanation as to why Walsh does this of his own accord, the commentator said that he “use[s] it for the purpose of trying to protect children from being castrated and mutilated.”
In a less keyed up exchange, Republican Rep. Jeremy Faison asked Walsh to share his knowledge on statistics of suicide rates among children who undergo mutilating hormones and surgeries.
“The claim that doing the chemical castration drugs or surgery or hormonal intervention prevents suicide or has a positive psychological effects down the line is utterly, totally baseless,” Walsh explained. “There are no credible long-term studies that bear that out.”
“One of the reasons for that is that there couldn’t possibly be any credible long-term studies because we’ve never done this to kids on this scale ever before in history. So, this current—shall we say, crop of children—they are the guinea pigs. This is all experimental. We’re sort of trying it out on them to see if it works.”
Walsh has actively challenged child mutilation and the LGBT agenda throughout his career in conservative media. In June 2022, the Daily Wire released his feature-length documentary titled “What Is A Woman?” The film shows Walsh traveling across the globe to interview medical professionals, academic experts, and citizens with a variety of backgrounds in an attempt to find a definition of “woman.” By doing so, Walsh exposed the alarming details of hormonal and surgical mutilation in the name of “gender transition.”
The following September, Walsh revealed that Vanderbilt University Medical Center was promoting these procedures to gender-confused youth because it is a “huge money maker.” This led to Republican Gov. Bill Lee calling for an investigation into the center.
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